Fan Fic - Sonic Heavy Rain (RATED T)

[sonicgirl313]

Yes I was insane enough to make this fan fic.

Rated T for Character Death and Suggestive themes.

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Sonic Heavy Rain

Chapter 1

The sun shined brightly on Mobius that day. A blue hedgehog with a light-skinned arms, stomach, and muzzle groaned as he sat up in his bed, opening his green eyes. This hedgehog's name is Sonic. He stretched his arms, letting out a long yawn before getting off of the bed. Sonic scratched his head for a moment, before noticing a note on the floor. He kneeled down, picking up the note to read it. He grinned when he saw it was from his wife Sally, telling him that she took their kids to get supplies for their daughter Sonia's Birthday party. Placing the note on the dresser, Sonic figured that he could at least clean up before his family returned. So he went into the bathroom, taking off his socks and gloves before turning on the water and entering the shower. As he scrubbed his quills, he thought about how he couldn't believe his own daughter was now ten years-old. It seemed only like yesterday to Sonic that his daughter was three. Seeing he was clean enough, he shut off the water, and stepped out of the shower, grabbing a towel to dry off with. Once he was dry he slipped back on his socks and gloves. He walked over the mirror and began staring at his reflection. Sonic couldn't help, but smirk at his reflection, thinking about how everyone thinks he's quite the hedgehog, especially Sally.

"Hmm it's almost around time for Sally and the kids to get back, maybe I'll go out for a quick run." Sonic thought to himself.

He quickly went back into his room and pulled out his old red-running shoes out of the closet. He slipped on the shoes and quickly ran down stairs. When Sonic was at the front door, he glanced around at the neighborhood, seeing everyone was peaceful ever since the defeat of the evil Dr. Robotnik. With that done he quickly took off, leaving behind a blue streak trail. Sonic grinned as he felt the wind whip through his quills, only encouraging him to run faster. The sound of his feet running, his arms threw back, his soft and calm breathing always was a wonderful feeling for Sonic. Sometimes it almost felt like he could fly though he didn't need wings. After a few minutes of running, Sonic quickly made his way back home, wanting to be there before his family arrived. He stopped in front of the house door, just in time to see his family car pull up in the driveway. Sonic grinned as he watched his two children run laughing out of the car. Manik who was a hedgehog that looked like Sonic except with blue eyes and Sonia a brown chipmunk-squirrel with red hair and green eyes, wearing a pink shirt, gray pants and pink shoes.

"Dad!" the two siblings said happily as they ran up to their father.

Sonic laughed as he pulled his two kids into a hug.

"Hey, so how's the birthday girl doing?" Sonic said.

"Awesome! I'm so excited! Am I an adult now that I am ten?" Sonia squealed.

"No, but you're getting there." Sonic answered, ruffling his daughter's red hair.

The kids ran off to the backyard as soon as they saw their mother Sally approaching. Sally Acorn was a brown chipmunk-squirrel with red hair and blue eyes, wearing blue boots and a blue vest.

Sonic ran up to her when he saw she was carrying three bags full of groceries and party supplies. He lifted the bags out of her arms, offering to carry them for her.

Sally smiled at this and gave Sonic a quick kiss on the lips.

Sonic grinned and they began walking inside together.

"So had another joyful run?" Sally asked with a smile as she pushed back some of her red hair.

"Yep, best one I ever had so far." Sonic smirked as he placed the bags on the counter.

"Glad to hear." Sally said before giving Sonic another quick kiss.

Sonic grinned before heading outside to check on Sonia and Manik. His green eyes watched as Sonia and Manik laughed, running around chasing each other. Finally they both tumbled on the grass, laughing at how much fun they were having. Finally getting tired of being left out on the fun, he walked up to them.

"So who's ready for some real fun?" Sonic asked.

Sonia and Manik ran up to him, their smiles growing bigger the more they knew what their dad wanted to do.

"So who wants to try to take down their dad in a race first?" Sonic asked.

He watched as both of his children jumped up and down, begging that they should go first instead of the other. Seeing as it was Sonia's birthday, Sonic decided that she should go first.

Sonia pumped her fists into the air in victory.

Manik sighed in defeat, but being a good sport he walked over to the side to wait for his turn.

Sonia and Sonic kneeled down into their starting positions, giving each other grins, knowing that they were in for a challenge. Without a word they instantly took off, pushing their legs to the limit, one trying to pull ahead of the other, both being parallel with each other.

Sonic had to admit his daughter was getting better with her running speed and there was no telling how fast one day she'll be able to go. Finally the race ended, but it ended in a tie.

Sonia was disappointed about his, but quickly forgot about that when she thought about how much fun she had racing against her father.

Seeing it was now his turn, Manik instantly ran up to his father as Sonia walked over to the side to watch the race. Just like last time the two ran as fast as they could, but it ended in a tie once again.

"You guys are getting fast, better step up my game if I want to keep up with competition." Sonic laughed.

Sonia and Manik ran over to him and hugged him at the same time. Though Sonic didn't know an idea had sparked in their heads. Without warning they kept a hold of his hands and ran circles around him, causing him to turn constantly. That was when Sonic knew what they were up to; they were wanting to see how long he could last spinning.

Sonic smirked at this, silently accepting their challenge. The turns started to become faster and faster as the kids started picking up their running speed.

Sonia and Manic laughs filled the air as they continued to make their father spin. It didn't take long for them to finally reach their top speed.

Sonic watched as his surroundings zoomed across his eyes, looking like a big blur from how fast he was spinning, he could feel dizziness starting to take affect.

"Okay I think that's enough spinning." Sonic laughed, still getting dizzier by the second.

Hearing this Sonia and Manik slowed down and came to a stop. The two siblings burst into laughter as they watched their father stumble around with his footing only for a few moments before finally collapsing on the ground.

"Alright time for lunch! We'll need to finish eating before Sonia's friends get here for the birthday party!" Sally called.

Sonia and Manik instantly ran inside the house to get their meal.

Sally shook her head with a smile when she saw Sonic pushing himself off the ground to stand back up, she knew how he had always enjoyed playing with the kids.

Sonic walked up to Sally and pulled her into a loving hug, he couldn't ask for more, he had a beautiful wife, two wonderful children, and a happy life, he believed there was nothing that could take that from him.

The next day Sonic and his family decided to take a trip to the mall. Sonic watched as Sonia and Manik ran around him laughing as they walked. The mall was crowded that day so Sonic made sure to keep an eye on his kids, not wanting them to get lost in the crowd.

They kept walking till Sally stopped in front of a shoe store.

"I would like to go look for some shoes for Manik. Can you keep an eye on Sonia?" Sally asked.

"Sure." Sonic said with a grin.

He gave his daughter a quick hug to insure his wife that he had it under control.

Sally smiled at this before taking Manik by the hand and walking into the shoe store.

Sonic grinned at the sight, feeling nothing could go wrong, but then at that moment he noticed Sonia was walking away from him. He called out her name as he followed her, but she did not turn around. Finally after a few seconds of walking, Sonic was relieved to see Sonia finally stop.

He kneeled down to her and warned "Sonia, don't wander off like that. It's crowded in here and I could lose you."

"Dad, can I please have one?" Sonia instantly pleaded.

Sonic was confused by this until he saw what his daughter was talking about. In front of them he saw a clown handing out balloons to children. Sonic sighed at this, surprised that his daughter was willing to wander off from him just because of a balloon.

"Okay fine let's go buy a balloon." Sonic said as he ruffled his daughter's red hair.

Sonia grinned in happiness as she and Sonic walked up to the clown.

"Hey there, what's your name little lady?" the clown said happily.

"Sonia." she answered with her grin remaining on her face.

"Well, Sonia, what balloon do you want?" the clown asked.

Sonia glanced over the different colored balloons; she tapped her finger against her chin as she thought about deeply which one she would want. At that moment a bright red balloon caught her attention. It was the last one there and she loved the bright red color.

"The red one!" she declared, pointing her finger at the balloon.

The clown turned away from Sonic and Sonia, pushing past the other balloons and untying the string to the red one.

"Here you go." he said as he kneeled down to hand her the balloon.

Sonia held onto the string tightly, staring up in wonder at her red balloon.

"That'll be two dollars." the clown said to Sonic.

Sonic was about to pay until he noticed Sonia walking away from him.

"Sonia, wait for me. Wait for your dad." Sonic said.

But Sonia did not hear her father's words. She watched as the light's reflection traveled down the balloon, acting like rain when it would drip down the window. She found it neat since the light's reflection reminded her of rain. Whenever she couldn't run outside due to rain she would watch the rain drip down the windows, to her it seemed almost like the rain drops were always in a race to get to the bottom of the window like how she always races against her dad, with that in mind she continued to watch the balloon. Though she had no idea that the more she continued to watch the light's reflections on the balloon, the farther away she was walking away from her father.

Sonic reached down and pulled two dollars out of his socks, he had to keep his money there due to the fact he usually doesn't wear any other clothing besides his socks, shoes, and gloves. Once he gave the clown the money he turned around to tell Sonia that they should head back to the shoe store, though his green eyes widen in fear when he saw his daughter was no where in sight.

"It's unbelievable to find shoes in this crowd." Sally said as she and Manik walked up to Sonic.

Her blue eyes widen when she saw Sonia wasn't next to Sonic.

"Sonic, where's Sonia?" Sally asked in a worried tone.

"I don't know. I went to buy her a balloon and when I turned around she disappeared," Sonic answered.

"Disappeared?! What do you mean disappeared?!" Sally exclaimed.

"Don't worry, I'll find her." Sonic said, not wanting his wife to worry.

With that he began looking around the mall, calling out Sonia's name. Normally he would use his speed to look around quicker, but due to the mall being crowded he wouldn't be able to get through. Sonic shoved past people, continuing to call out his daughter's name. He leaned over the railing and there he spotted Sonia and her red balloon, wondering around lost, not knowing where her father was. Sonic kept calling out for his daughter as he quickly ran down the nearest escalator, shoving past people to get down quicker. Though to his horror as soon as he got down to the floor he saw the giant crowd was preventing him to spot Sonia, the only thing he had to go by was the red balloon he saw floating over the crowd. He constantly shoved past people as he made his way toward the balloon, ignoring the hateful remarks they were shouting at him, his main focus was to get to his daughter. He called out her name again, despite the fact he knew his calls would be drowned out by the sound of the crowd. He got closer to the red balloon, but at that moment a bunch of balloons that were together floated up to the ceiling, temporarily blinding Sonic's vision. He frantically looked around, trying to relocate the red balloon once again. Finally he spotted it floating near the merry-go-round. He quickly made his way toward the merry-go-round, relieved when he saw red hair come into view.

"Sonia you had worried for a s..." Sonic started as he kneeled down, but his eyes widened when he turned around the girl to see she was only a brown dog with red hair.

Sonic quickly stood back up, calling out his daughter's name even louder this time. He looked around until he spotted a red balloon outside of the mall's entrance. He didn't know if it could be another kid's balloon, but it was the only thing he had to go by to find his daughter. He shoved his way through the crowd, watching the red balloon come closer and closer into view. Finally he was outside and there he saw on the other side of the road was Sonia, looking around lost.

"Sonia!" Sonic screamed as loud as he could.

Sonia turned around, smiling in relief that she finally found her father. She called out to him and began to run across the road, though halfway there she tripped and fell down on the road. As she was getting up Sonic noticed a car approaching that showed no signs of slowing.

"Sonia no!" he screamed, knowing that the car was going to hit her.

Sonic began running to his daughter as fast as he could, but still could not run as fast as he could due to the crowd.

Sonia stood up and froze in fear when she saw the car was inches from her.

Sonic lunged for Sonia, pulling her into his arms to shelter her. Unfortunately this was the one time the fastest thing alive wasn't fast enough. The car hit Sonic and Sonia as soon as they were in the process of falling to the ground.

Sonic's head slammed forward, knocking him unconscious and giving him a concussion, though sadly Sonia was worst off.

Sonia flew out of her father's arms, flying forward; her head hitting the cement. Her body tumbled for a few moments before finally coming to a stop. Sally and Manik had seen the whole thing.

"Sonia!" Oh god no! Sonia! Please no! God no!" Sally sobbed as she ran up to her daughter's limp body.

Tears streaked down her face as she stared at Sonia's lifeless body, blood pouring out of her head, her blue eyes closed forever. Sally took a hold of Sonia's hand and held it to her chest as she continued to cry. With a shaky hand she began to stroke Sonia's red hair, her lip quivering as she watched her hand start to get covered in blood.

Manik stared in horror, he had witnessed his sister's death and there was no telling what the car hit had done to his father. He couldn't believe that this had happened. He wanted to cry but he couldn't do it, he was too scared at what had happened. He couldn't believe that only a few minutes ago he was laughing and playing with his sister and now she was lying on the road dead.

The sounds of ambulances filled the air as Sonia's red balloon floated upward to the sky.

Sonic's green eyes slowly opened when he heard his wife's cries. He tried to turn his head to see what she was crying about, but his neck throbbed in pain when he did due to the concussion he got. Seeing he couldn't use his head he decided to use his eyes instead. His green eyes glance over to the side seeing Sally kneeling on the ground crying, but what horrified him the most when he saw red hair and blood pouring onto the cement. His eyes glanced to the sky to see the red balloon he had bought Sonia floating higher and higher to the sky. Sonic closed his eyes as tears began to streak down the sides of his face. He wasn't fast enough; he wasn't able to save his daughter, believing it was his fault for turning away from her. Sonic cried as his guilt grew stronger, he would never hear his daughter's laugh again, he would never see her smile again, he would never compete in a race with her, he would never get to do anything with her again all because his ten year-old daughter Sonia Acorn was dead.

[The Chairman Of The Board]

I love this fan fic. I see with the server being down and stuff being deleted you decided to repost this good idea.

[sonicgirl313]

Chapter 2

It had been two years since Sonia had died. Sonic stood silently in the pouring rain, waiting for his son Manik to come out of the school. He sighed sadly as he thought about how he only gets to keep his son Monday through Friday each week. A few months ago Sally decided she could no longer stand to see Sonic's constant grieving over the death of their daughter and had him divorced, it pained Sonic to lose his wife, but sadly he chose to go ahead and move on with life. The blue hedgehog stared up to the sky, watching the rain constantly pour down on Mobius, trying his best not to remind himself about how much Sonia loved the rain. Taking a deep breath he tugged on the collar of his brown jacket, wondering how much longer it would take for Manik to come out. Finally there he saw his son walking out of the school doors, his steps slow, and his head lowered, not making eye contact with his father.

"Hey, Manik." Sonic said with a small smile, hoping to get a response out of him.

Manik's grip on the straps of his backpack tightened, wishing he could reach the hood of his beige coat that was pinned to his back by his backpack so he could hide his face. His blue eyes continued to stare ground, not wanting to look up at his father's face.

"Hey, dad." Manik replied in an emotionless tone.

Sonic frowned at this response; over the two years he had tried to repair the bond between him and his son. Ever since Sonia died they barely talked to each other, in fact Manik even stopped trying to beat his dad in races. They would just only share a few words and say nothing more. Sonic closed his eyes as his son walked past him and got in the back seat of his car that he bought since Manik no longer liked the idea of running home, though Sonic was glad at least he would be dry instead of having to run in the rain. He went over to the driver's door and got inside. After Sonic buckled himself up he checked his mirror and could see Manik's reflection in the mirror with his head still lowered and staring at the car floor. But to Sonic's surprise his son's blue eyes glanced up at him before a moment before glancing down once again to continue staring at the floor. Sonic looked away from the mirror and started the car. As he placed his hand on the gear shift, he thought about how his life could have been different if he had kept an eye on Sonia. Manik was his only child now and he wanted to make sure he does not lose him like Sonia. He shifted the car gear into drive and began headed for home.

As he drove down the road he glanced at some kids laughing and playing in the puddles created by heavy rain that had been pouring lately. He thought about how if Sonia was still alive she would have been twelve, it also pained him when he thought about how Manik is now ten himself, the age that Sonia had died. Quickly he pushed these thoughts aside, not wanting his son to see him grieve; he wanted his son to see him happy. Finally they stopped in front of an old worn-down house that they knew as home. Sonic had to admit he had neglected the house and hadn't bothered to fix up the house since a nice looking house wasn't one of his main priorities as of late.

Manik quickly got out of the car followed by his father. Once inside Manik took off his coat, throwing it on the old green couch, and turning on the TV to watch cartoons.

Sonic sighed at this, for him this had become a regular routine for him. Once they always got home Manik would watch cartoons and barely speak to his father. But Sonic was planning to attempt to end this today.

"So, Manik, how was school? Is your teacher nice?" he asked, hoping to get a response out of his son.

"Nothing special, dad." Manik answered in an emotionless tone, never taking his eyes off of the TV screen.

Sonic wanted to bite his lip when he heard the sound of his son's voice; he also hated when his son would talk to him in that tone of voice. Seeing that Manik didn't want to talk about school, Sonic decided he would try to start a conversation about something else.

"So how's your mom? Do you still have fun playing with your friends?" he asked, hoping that he would get a better response.

"Everything's fine, dad." Manik replied in the same tone as before.

Sonic almost flinched when he heard that same emotionless tone. Figuring that wasn't going to work, he decided to try a different approach.

"How about we have a race to see who's the fastest?" Sonic suggested.

"I'd rather watch cartoons." his son said, tone never changing.

Sonic closed his eyes in defeat, he knew there was no way Manik was going to talk to him or compete in races against him. He couldn't force Manik to talk to him or interact with him; he knew that his son needed more time to heal from the tragedy that had struck their family and that it may take him more than two years to finally heal of his emotional wounds. Sonic opened his green eyes and looked over at the clock on the wall, seeing it was now four-thirty pm, the time to give Manik his snack.

"Hey Manik do you want a snack?" Sonic asked, making sure that his son was hungry.

"I guess, I am a little hungry." he replied in a slightly happier tone.

"Okay I'll go see what's in the kitchen." Sonic said.

As he walked to the kitchen, he smiled at the fact that Manik's tone changed some, though he knew he still wouldn't be able to talk to him despite this. Once in the kitchen he looked around at the different food he could give his son as a snack, finally he settled on an apple. He grabbed the apple from the basket, tossing it up in the air, and catching it in his hand. He went back into the living room and handed his son the apple.

"Here you go, Manik." Sonic said.

"Thanks, dad." Manik replied, glancing up at his father.

Sonic was happy when he saw his son made eye contact with him, glad that he was at least making some progress, even though it was only small progress. Deciding it was best not to ruin the progress by trying to talk more, Sonic walked over near the stairs, noticing a newspaper lying on a table. He picked up the newspaper and cringed when he saw what the front page was about. The article talked about the Origami Killer, a criminal who always kidnaps a boy between ages eight to thirteen and drowns them with rain water. The police always found the victim's body five days after they had gone missing with an orchid on their chest and an origami figure in their hand. Sonic continued reading, seeing the article was talking about how the Origami Killer had managed to kill a ninth victim, Knuckles' son Brock. Learning that sent chills down Sonic's spine, he couldn't believe that his friend's son was killed by the Origami Killer. Wanting to not think about this tragedy, Sonic put the newspaper down, deciding to look through his mail instead. As he flipped through the usual junk mail, a white envelope caught his eye.

Sonic studied the envelope carefully, seeing it was addressed to him, and oddly the envelope did not have a return address. Curiosity beginning to pry his mind, he started to open up the envelope. Inside he saw there was a piece of paper that had a small poem written on it.

"When the parents come home from church, all their children were gone." Sonic read quietly, "They searched and called for them, they cried and begged, but it was all to no avail. The children have never been seen again."

Sonic's face turned pale when he finished reading the letter, a feeling of uneasiness washed over him, he wondered why someone would send him such a letter. Quickly he put the paper back in the envelope and laid it down on the table, wanting to forget about the letter he had just read. He glanced over at Manik who had finished eating his apple. Sonic walked over to the couch and picked up the apple core for his son. When he threw it in the trash he glanced at the clock on the wall, remembering he had to get Manik to start on his homework at six. It wasn't quite six yet so Sonic decided to watch the TV as well to pass the time. On the TV he saw his son watching a cartoon about a blue robot and red robot having to hunt down robots that had gone rogue. They watched the cartoon for a while, not saying a word to each other. He looked back at the clock and saw it was now six, the time to have Manik work on his homework.

"Manik, it's time to do your homework." Sonic said.

"Dad, can I please watch some more TV, we'll do it later." Manik pleaded.

"We should do it now that way it's done and over with." Sonic stated.

"Okay." Manik said with a sigh of defeat.

"Alright come on, get your bag and meet me over at the table, I'll help you with any problems." Sonic said with a grin.

They both sat at the kitchen table across from each other. Sonic waited silently even though he did not like waiting at all, the only reason he was waiting to see if Manik would ask him for any help on the problems. He watched as his son silently wrote down answers in his book, not once bothering to look up, and not even asking his father for help.

Finally one hour later Manik had finally finished his homework.

Sonic had been tapping his fingers on the table out of boredom, wondering if either Manik didn't need help on any of his problems or chose to ignore him.

"Dad, I'm finished. Can I go watch TV now?" Manik said, wanting to return to watching cartoons.

"Let me take a look." Sonic said as he leaned over his son's book, checking to see if he had got all the answers right.

He scanned over each question, seeing every single one was right, though part of him felt like that Manik kept trying until he got the answer right instead of asking him for help. Finally he decided to push this thought aside for the sake of his son.

"Looks pretty good. Okay off you go." Sonic said with a smile, ruffling his son's blue quills.

For the moment Sonic remembered how he would always ruffle Sonia's red hair after she had completed her homework. The memory almost made Sonic cry, thinking about the happy memories he had of his daughter before she lost her life in the car accident. He quickly shook his head, trying to snap out of his thoughts, remembering how he didn't want to grieve in front of his son. Sonic looked to the clock, seeing it was now seven, usually that was the time he started making Manik's dinner.

"Hey, Manik, do you want some dinner?" he called out to his son who was sitting back on the couch.

"Yeah I'm really hungry." Manik replied.

"Okay I'll see what's in the fridge." Sonic said.

As he dug through the fridge, he saw a couple of cold chili dogs. Sonic stuck out his tongue in disgust at the thought of cold chili dogs since he always liked them hot. He pulled the plate of chili dogs out of the fridge and placed them in the microwave to heat them up. When he was waiting for the chili dogs to finish, at that moment he heard Manik sneeze. He thought nothing of it until he heard another sneeze come from Manik, followed by another and another. After he had pulled the finished chili dogs out of the microwave and set them on the table, he decided to check on Manik. Sonic walked over to his son, seeing that he finished sneezing, but had to sniff a few times due to his nose being stuffy.

"Looks like you have a cold coming on. I'll go get you medicine while you eat." Sonic said.

Manik nodded and headed to the kitchen to eat his dinner.

Remembering he kept the medicine in the bathroom, Sonic began to climb the stairs to the upper floor. Once up there he entered the bathroom and opened the medicine cabinet. He looked around at the different medicines that were in the cabinet until finally he spotted cold medicine. He opened up the cold medicine packet and dumped one of the pills into his hand. Seeing he had got what he wanted he headed back down stairs. Sonic reached the bottom of the stairs and saw that Manik had finished his dinner.

"Here take this. It will help you feel better." Sonic said, handing his son the pill.

"Thanks, dad." Manik replied in a happier tone before swallowing the pill.

Sonic decided this time he would not watch TV to pass the time like last time, instead he chose to do something that he was surprised at himself for wanting to do, and that was to watch the rain fall. His green eyes focused as he watch the rain drops drip down the window, remembering how at times he would find his daughter Sonia sitting in front of a window, watching the rain, talking about how it seemed like the rain was in a race. Sonic didn't know it, but tears slowly began to streak down his face as he continued to watch the rain, thinking about the memories of Sonia watching the rain. He finally stopped watching when he noticed tears dripping down his muzzle. He quickly wiped away his tears, not wanting Manik to know he had been crying. He looked at the clock and saw it was now eight, Manik's bed time.

"Manik, time for bed." Sonic said as he walked over to Manik who was still watching cartoons.

"Ah, but I'm not tired yet. Can I please stay up a while longer?" Manik pleaded.

"Now you know that's not reasonable. You have school tomorrow so you need the sleep." Sonic stated.

"Okay, will you come with me?" his son said, accepting the fact it was time to go to bed.

"Go brush your teeth and take your shoes off, I'll be up there soon." Sonic replied.

Manik nodded his head and headed up stairs.

Sonic headed up stairs as well and went into Manik's bedroom. He went over and shut the window shades, but before he could turn around he noticed on Manik's desk there was a drawing. Wanting to get a better look he picked up the drawing but instantly regretted it. His eyes widened in shock when he saw it was a drawing of Sonia's death. Sonic felt sick at his stomach seeing Manik had drew Sonia lying on the ground dead and Sally crying, also the fact Manik had drew himself in the picture staring at Sonic's unconscious body. Not wanting to think about it anymore Sonic quickly laid the drawing back down on the desk. To his relief Manik had finally came into the room and got on his bed. Sonic sat down on the bed, getting ready to tuck his son in.

"Goodnight, Manik." Sonic said with a smile.

"My teddy! Dad, I can't sleep without it!" Manik exclaimed, seeing his stuffed bear was not on the bed.

"Alright I'll go look for it, you must have left it somewhere around the house, be back in a flash." Sonic said before zooming out the door.

It didn't take long for him to come running back into the bedroom. Out from behind his back he pulled out a green teddy bear.

"Thanks, dad." Manik said as he wrapped his arms around the teddy bear.

"Goodnight, Manik." Sonic said as he laid his hand on Manik's head.

"Dad? Why do you look so sad?" Manik asked.

Sonic closed his eyes and let out a sigh, figuring that he hadn't done a very good job hiding his grief over Sonia's death.

"Guess it'll take more time for me to heal, until everything will be back to the way it was." Sonic answered as he opened his eyes.

"You know, dad, Sonia's death wasn't your fault and I'm sorry if me not talking a lot made it seemed like that I did blame you for her death." Manik said.

Sonic said nothing but gave a small smile, his son's words reassuring him but only by a small bit.

With that said Manik closed his eyes and went to sleep.

Sonic pulled the covers up, kissed him on the forehead, and closed the door quietly. He was about to go to his room but he ended up stopping in his tracks. His body began to violently shake, his breathing became quick and raspy, and his surroundings kept fading in and out from darkness. Finally he closed his eyes and his mind went blank. Sonic opened his eyes and began to panic instantly when he found himself underwater in his flooded house. He frantically looked around, searching for anything to pull himself out of the water. But there was no escape; everything was filled to the brim with water. At that moment Sonic noticed something in the center of the room. He made his way to the thing as best as he could, not able to get there easily due to the fact he doesn't know how to swim. Finally he made it to the thing, but when he turned it toward him, he began to scream, and allowing water to rush into his lungs as bubbles flew out of his mouth. In front of him was the drowned body of a ten year-old white-furred male echidna. Sonic's eyes snapped open, finding himself standing in the rain near Carnaby Street, no where near home.

Sonic realized that what he saw was another one of his blackouts. Ever since he got a concussion from that car hitting him, he would at times blackout and when he finally came to he would find himself somewhere he didn't know. But there was one final thing Sonic would always find when he came to. Wanting to confirm his fears Sonic slowly lifted his hand to see what he was holding. His eyes widen in fear when he saw he was holding the same object that he would always be holding every time he came to from his blackouts, there in his hand was an origami figure.

[The Chairman Of The Board]

I hope this isn't too much off topic that it is deleted but wow I just realized that your entire account was erased. That's crazy

[sonicgirl313]

Chapter 3

It was still pouring down heavy rain that night, though was not yet even up to the one inch mark. A brown car pulled up in front of a shady looking hotel. A purple weasel with a big fang sticking out of his mouth wearing a brown Stetson hat, brown boots with white gaiters, a brown belt, brown gloves with metal plates on them, and a long dark brown trench coat stepped out of the car. This weasel's name was Fang the Sniper. He glanced up at the barely lit hotel sign before walking inside. Fang looked around at the trashed and badly looking lobby before finally his blue eyes settled on the clerk at the front desk. He walked up to the clerk, leaning one of his arms on the desk.

"I'm looking for a Mina Mongoose. Ring any bells?" Fang asked.

The clerk glanced up from his newspaper that talked about the Origami Killer. The clerk narrowed his eyes at the purple weasel in front of him and returned to reading the newspaper.

"Nope doesn't ring any bells." the clerk replied.

Fang clenched his fist; he knew that he had to do some convincing in order to get the answers he wanted. He dug around in his coat pocket and pulled out five dollars. He watched as the clerk peeked over his newspaper when he placed the money on the desk.

"Oh that Mina Mongoose. Third floor, last door on the left." the clerk smirked as he took the money.

Fang said nothing as he began walking up the stairs, his eyes studying the walls covered in cracks and graffiti, wondering how a hotel in such a bad state managed to keep running. He reached the third floor and saw the door on the left at the end of the hallway. Fang walked up to the door, knocked on it, and crossed his arms, waiting for someone to answer. The door opened up to reveal a yellow mongoose with long purple hair that had bangs hanging in front of her green eyes, she was wearing a black tank top and tan shorts, she had no gloves or shoes on at the moment, and finally she had two earrings on each ear. Fang knew that she had to be Mina Mongoose.

When Mina saw Fang the look of annoyance formed on her face.

"Not another one, for the last time I'm not a prostitute! Now leave and tell the clerk to quit telling sleazy guys where my room is!" Mina hissed.

She tried to slam the door close, but Fang instantly pressed his hand against the door, preventing it from being closed.

"I'm not that kind of person." he said.

Her green eyes narrowed a bit, she was unsure if she could trust him, though she figured he probably would have forced his way into her room if he was the kind of guy that usual shows up at her front door. Still a bit unsure about Fang, Mina opened up the door, deciding to let him in, but she intended on calling the cops if he tried anything.

Fang tilted his hat down a bit and entered her room, hearing the door being closed behind him. He watched as Mina walked past him, her steps slow and cautious as she made her way to her dresser. He saw her pick up a picture off of the dresser of a young yellow male fox for a moment before placing it back down in it's rightful place.

Mina turned away from the dresser and began to lean backwards, her hands placed on the dresser so she wouldn't fall over.

"Exactly what are you here for then?" Mina asked, her voice a bit calmer now.

"I'm Fang, a private detective hired by the victim's families of the Origami Killer. I came here hoping you could have some information that would help me track down the killer." Fang explained.

When Mina heard this at first her eyes widened in shock, but soon was quickly replaced by anger and hurt.

"I already told the cops all I know!" Mina said, her voice full of hate.

"The killer is walking free as we speak; if we don't do something he'll continue killing children." Fang said with a tone of slight annoyance due to the fact that Mina was refusing to talk about the Origami Killer.

Mina pushed herself off of her dresser and began walking quickly up to Fang. His blue eyes stared into her green eyes that glared at him, full of anger.

"What good will it do? My son Skye is dead! Do you hear me? Dead!" Mina replied hatefully, her voice getting louder with every word.

Fang clenched his teeth in anger; the one thing he couldn't stand more is when someone refuses to cooperate with him. He knew that he needed to get Mina to talk about the subject in order to get answers. That was when he came up with an idea.

"Then there will be more mothers finding their sons dead on some wasteland, but you're right! Why should you care? It's not your problem anymore!" Fang yelled slightly, wanting to make Mina guilty to trick her to talk about her son.

Mina watched as Fang silently turned away from her, his words stinging her heart, making her sound like a heartless woman that only cares for herself. She looked over at the picture of her son Skye again; she didn't want other mothers to feel the pain she did when her son was killed by the Origami Killer. She walked away from Fang, sat down on her bed, and lowered her head.

"What do you want to know?" she asked quietly.

Fang turned around with a smirk of victory; his plan to trick her into talking about it had worked. As he asked her a series of questions, he learned that Mina use to be a popular pop star singer, who always never had time for her son. She would drop him off at the park to play with his friends while she sung at concerts. She discovered he was kidnapped when on one rainy day all his friends came home except for him. She also told how Skye's father Tails received a mysterious letter, once he finished reading it he took off but he never came back. Eventually she lost the will to continue singing, causing her career to fall into shambles, forcing her to get a job as a waitress that unfortunately doesn't pay well and live in the worn down hotel. Without warning she got off of her bed and glared at Fang.

"That's all the questions I'll be answering. I hope you got what you wanted, Fang. Now get out!" Mina hissed.

Fang nodded his head, knowing that it would be useless to get Mina to talk about it anymore.

"Well if you learn anything give me a call." Fang said.

Mina watched as he placed his business card on the table, but to her surprise he also placed fifty bucks as well. As Fang walked out the door, Mina turned toward her mirror and began staring at her reflection. She wanted to find the man that killed her son so she could avenge her son and finally put her bad memories to rest.

As Fang walked down the hallway he took out his gun and began twirling it for a bit, thinking about the information he had just gained.

At that moment a male yellow mongoose with black hair, piercings on his ears, and blue eyes, wearing a black shirt, torn black jeans, glasses, a white short-sleeved jacket, and black spike collars on his wrists walked past the purple weasel.

Fang saw that the mongoose was headed straight for Mina's room. He thought nothing of this until he heard Mina talk.

"Ash, what are you doing here?" she demanded.

"Mina, you're coming back with me whether you like it or not." Ash said.

"No! I'm done with singing! I'm not going back; I'd rather barely make it here than go back to a career that caused me to lose my son!" Mina yelled.

Though when she tried to close the door Ash forced his way inside her room, his face with the look of anger, and slammed the door behind him.

Fang's eyes widened when he heard Mina began screaming. He quickly ran to the door, banging his fist as hard as he could against it. The door opened up to reveal Ash glaring at Fang.

"What do you want?" Ash snarled.

"Mina, are you okay in there?" Fang instantly asked.

He looked past Ash and saw Mina lying on the floor crying.

"She's just fine! Now beat it!" Ash snarled before slamming the door close.

Fang snarled in anger and kicked down the door, surprising Ash by doing this. Fang began to pull out his gun but ended up getting slammed against the wall by the male mongoose. He mentally cursed to himself when he dropped the gun upon impact.

Ash threw a punch at Fang, only to have him dodge it and get punched himself. They grabbed each other by the jacket collars, slamming each other into the furniture and walls, wrecking Mina's hotel room in the process.

Mina begged and pleaded Ash to stop fighting but he did not listen.

Ash slammed Fang on the table, trying to choke him, but fortunately Fang managed to grab a glass bottle and bang it against the male mongoose's head. He kicked away Ash, quickly leaning on the kitchen counter to prevent himself from falling to the ground.

Ash snarled in anger as he picked up the glass bottle, smashing it against the wall to break it so he could attempt to cut Fang. He swung the bottle, the broken glass cutting the purple weasel on his stomach.

Fang yelled in pain, holding his hand over the bleeding wound.

Mina began to scream for Ash to stop what he was doing, threatening to call the cops if he continued.

Ash swung the bottle again, but luckily Fang managed to dodge this time. When Ash tried swing the bottle again, Fang managed to grab his arm, throwing him on the table, causing it to collapse. Ash quickly got up and shoved Fang against the fridge, trying to stab him with the broken bottle.

The purple weasel managed to shove away the bottle, twisting Ash's arm so he would drop it, and punching him. Fang kept punching the male mongoose till finally he fell to the ground.

Ash stood up as he wiped away blood from his bleeding nose.

Fang was out of breath, using one hand to support himself on Mina's dresser, the other on his bleeding wound.

"You'll regret this." Ash said before leaving the room.

Mina picked up Fang's gun off of the floor and handed it to him.

"Are you alright?" she asked in a concerned tone.

"Better than him I guess. Who was he?" Fang asked as he placed his gun back on his belt.

"My former band manager and ex-boyfriend. He became aggressive toward me when I chose to quit my singing career." Mina answered.

Fang clenched his teeth in pain, sore from the battle and the fact he was still bleeding.

"Well you should be careful, he'll probably be back. Take care of yourself." Fang said.

He started to head for the door.

"Fang?" Mina said.

He stopped in his tracks and turned around to face her. Fang saw that Mina's green eyes were no longer full of hate and anger; instead they were full of gratefulness and concern.

"Thanks." she said quietly.

Fang tilted his hat a bit before leaving the room.

Mina stood staring at the open door, thinking about how he had come when he heard her screaming, and being grateful that he had come when he did. She said nothing as the injured purple weasel continued walking down the hallway.

Meanwhile at Carnaby Street, a crime scene had been set up for that was the location where the Origami Killer's ninth victim was found dead. Cops were everywhere, searching for anything that would help them find the Origami Killer. A black car pulled up to the crime scene, inside there was a black male hedgehog with red eyes, red streaks on his quills, white chest fur, white gloves with black and red cuffs and with yellow bracelets, white shoes, and a black coat. The hedgehog's name was Shadow. A shaky hand reached for the car door handle, Shadow took in deep breaths and was in pain for a moment, his power known as chaos that would allow him to use chaos control, chaos spear, or the most devastating of them all chaos blast have been getting out of control lately, causing him pain unless he releases some of his suppressed powers, but he knew that would lead to people getting hurt. Choosing to bare through the pain, Shadow got out of the car and headed for the crime scene.

"This zone is sectioned off sir. Please step back." a cop said, not allowing Shadow to pass.

"I'm Shadow the Hedgehog. I've been sent here by GUN to help on the Origami Killer case." Shadow stated.

"Got a badge?" the cop asked.

Shadow reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a card showing that he did indeed work for GUN.

"Okay you can pass." the cop said.

Shadow placed the card back into his pocket and crawled underneath the security tape. Before he was fixing to walk off he remembered to ask the cop a question.

"I'm looking for Lieutenant Metal Sonic and two detectives from an organization called Chaotix." Shadow said.

"Don't worry they should be around here, I saw them come in earlier." the cop answered.

Shadow nodded his head in understanding and began looking for the three people he was supposed to talk to. He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out black sunglasses and a black glove with blue lights. He placed the sunglasses over his eyes and slipped on the black glove, instantly his vision being filled with images of scans, recordings, and notes. The glasses he was wearing was called the ARI, Added Reality Interface, a new technology developed by GUN that would help their agents get a closer look at crime scenes, seeing what a normal person could not. GUN wanted to test this new technology so they chose Shadow as the test subject due to him having more endurance than a normal person just in case something went wrong. He held out his black gloved hand, activating the ARI's scans, causing a circle of light to form around him, revealing DNA and particles the cops could not see. Shadow looked around until finally he spotted the three people he was looking for.

The first person was Metal Sonic who was a blue and silver robot that looked like a hedgehog, the second person was Espio a fuchsia male chameleon with a yellow horn and gold eyes, wearing purple shoes, white gloves with black cuff that had a purple triangle pads, a black coat, and the last person was Vector a green male crocodile with gold eyes, wearing black headphones, a gold chain necklace, white gloves with black cuffs, black shoes, and a red jacket.

"Geesh finding clues out here in this rain is like trying to find a computer room." Vector commented.

"Will stop complaining Vector, the more we search, the more clues we'll find that will get us closer to finally catching the Origami Killer." Metal Sonic snapped.

"You don't need to get angry Metal, Vector didn't say anything about not searching. He was stating that it may be difficult in this rain." Espio said.

Metal Sonic was about to say something until he noticed Shadow approaching them.

"Metal Sonic, Vector, and Espio I presume? The officers at the police station told me you three would be here. I'm Shadow the Hedgehog, GUN sent me here to help with the investigation." Shadow said as he took off the ARI glasses.

"If you're looking for rain, dead bodies and highways, you've come to the right place." Vector said before laughing.

Metal Sonic glared at Vector for a moment before turning his attention toward Shadow.

"Come with us, we'll fill you in on the case." Espio said.

Shadow nodded and began to follow the three. He discovered that the body was found around six in the morning that day, though no one was able to witness the death which is one of the main reasons why they haven't been able to track down the Origami Killer. Shadow also found out that the victim's death was actually recent; the victim had little to no marks on his body and was drowned like all the other victims. He found it strange that a killer was willing to wait for the rain season and drown his victims within four to five days, making him wonder what could possibly be the killer's motives for doing this.

"How about we continue this discussion later back at headquarters, I'm busy about this crime scene." Metal Sonic said.

"Sure, though I'd like to have a look around. Is that fine?" Shadow replied.

"Yeah, though if you learn anything just tell Vector, Espio, or me. We're working together now so we should be alerted to these things." Metal Sonic said.

Shadow nodded and walked away from the three. He slipped back on his ARI glasses and glove to begin investigating, first he decided to start with the body. He walked over to a white tent, kneeled down, and looked inside. There Shadow saw the dead body of the ten year-old white male echidna lying on his back; he decided to take note of this before searching the body. He held his hand wearing the black glove over the body, activating the ARI scans, at that moment information about each clue pulled up on his glasses. First he examined the victim's face, noting how the echidna's face was covered in mud like the other victims. The second clue he searched was the orchid that was placed on the echidna's chest, when he scanned it he saw the trail of pollen particles appear on the scan, he decided to go investigate that later. The third clue he searched was the origami figure itself that was lying in the echidna's right hand. He noticed how the fingers were wrapped around the origami figure, believing that the fingers were probably closed after the time of death. He scanned the echidna's fingerprints and identified him as Brock the Echidna who was reported missing only five days ago. Finally he scanned the wound on the echidna's leg, seeing that it was there when the body was being moved.

With the body having no more clues to look at, Shadow stood back up, and closed the tent. Shadow looked at the air, seeing the orchid pollen trail that the ARI scans had picked up lead over to the nearby railroad tracks. When he reached the railroad tracks, he saw there was blood on one of the planks, scanning the blood he found out that it had came from the victim. Shadow was fixing to walk away until he saw footprints in the mud that continued where the pollen trail had ended, he knew they had to be the killer's. He followed the footprints up to a hill that was slick with mud, noticing how the victim's blood was on the fence, figuring that the killer must have accidentally hit the fence when he was carrying the body. Wanting to see where the footprints lead to, Shadow began climbing up the muddy hill. He lost his footing a few times due to the mud but he finally he reached the top. He saw that was where the footprints ended and tire tracks leading onto the highway. When he tried scanning the tire tracks, a car zoomed by, causing water to splash on him. Shadow clenched his teeth in anger, throwing his fist in the air, hoping that the driver would see he had made him ticked.

"Look's like I've seen all there is to see." Shadow said as he shook his arms, trying to shake off the water.

He made his way back down the hill and went to see Metal Sonic, Vector, and Espio.

"Hey were heading back to headquarters, are you staying?" Vector asked.

"No, I'm heading back too. I've seen all that I could manage to find." Shadow answered.

"Alright then we'll meet you back at headquarters." Espio said.

With that Shadow headed back to his car, taking off his ARI glasses and glove. As he crawled underneath the security tape, he wondered why someone would want take the life of a child and leave their dead bodies with gifts of some sort. Shadow was curious about this just as much as anyone else. Getting in his car and driving away from the crime scene, Shadow knew this was only the beginning to him discovering the identity of the Origami Killer.

[sonicgirl313]

Chapter 4

Sonic breathed slowly as he looked up at the ink blot pictures in front of his face. He was worried after his latest blackout and wanted to make sure if everything in his mind was alright. Sonic calmly identified the object he saw in each picture as a bat, a wolf, and a crab. When he came upon the last ink blot picture his face turned pale, to him the ink blot picture looked like the grim reaper staring at him with a firm grasp on his scythe, waiting for the moment to take another person close to him away. Sonic closed his eyes, not wanting to see the image, identifying the picture as death.

A green male duck known as Bean wearing a red handkerchief around his neck, white gloves, red shoes, and a blue jacket looked closely at MRI scans that scanned Sonic's mind while he was identifying the ink blot pictures. Once he was finished he pressed a button on his remote, opening the window blinds and shutting off the scans.

Sonic sat upright in the black lounge chair, seeing the tests were over.

"I had a look at your MRI scans. Everything seems pretty normal; there is no damage from the accident." Bean started, "However I'm worried about your psychological condition."

Sonic said nothing as he kept his head lowered to the ground.

"I know it's not easy, but you've got to start over, Sonic. You're not responsible for what happened." Bean said.

Sonic took in a deep sigh; memories of his daughter filled his mind, her smile, her laugh, the car approaching, her red hair, blood pouring out on to the cement. He wanted to convince himself that it wasn't his fault that she died but he could never bring himself to it. He wished he had kept a better eye on her.

"It's my fault Sonia's dead. She'd been alive if I'd been looking out for her." Sonic said sadly.

"It was an accident. Accidents happen everyday." the green duck stated, "You can't blame yourself for your daughter's death."

Sonic did not reply as he turned his head away from the therapist.

Bean took in a deep sigh, he knew that Sonic was still having trouble to be convinced of that.

"How is Manik?" he asked, hoping Sonic had at least managed to repair the bond with his son.

"He's a very solitary kid, you know very focused within himself. He's really close to his mother; with me he's more distant." Sonic explained.

"What about you, Sonic? What do you feel?" Bean asked.

"The pain seems to never go away; I'm always scared that I'm going to end up losing Manik next. I always go on runs, trying to bury the depression under adrenalin, but it never works." Sonic answered.

Bean wasn't happy to hear this, knowing that Sonic was doing his best to hide the sadness but he knew it was very common for someone to have constant grief when they lose a family member.

"Is there anything else you wanted to tell me?" Bean asked, seeing that there something was still on Sonic's mind.

Sonic closed his eyes, remembering about his blackout last night, how he ended up waking up in a different place, not knowing how he got there, always finding an origami figure in his hand. He wanted to tell the therapist this since that's why he came there in the first place.

"I've been having blackouts, losing consciousness, not knowing what I was doing. When I regain consciousness some time later, I always find myself in some other place, not knowing how I got there. Do you think it could be related to the accident?" he explained.

"You suffered a massive concussion and were in a coma for six months." Bean replied, "We really don't know what effect a shock like that can have on the brain."

Sonic directed his attention toward the beeping clock, his time was now up. He took off his headgear scans, laying them back on the black lounge chair, and stood up, planning on now going to pick up Manik from school.

"You were lucky Sonic. It's very rare to survive such a traumatic accident." Bean said, wanting to reassure his patient.

Sonic's green eyes glanced at the therapist.

"I don't exactly feel lucky doc." he said quietly before leaving Bean's office.

Later that day Sonic took Manik to the park, hoping that some playing around would cheer him up. They both sat silently on the park bench, watching the other kids laugh and play. Sonic didn't like seeing Manik sit quietly, staring at the ground. He knew Manik claims that he did not blame him for Sonia's death but there was still the fact they were distant from each other. He wanted to see his son smile again and he was going to make sure of it. He got off of the bench and walked over to the seesaw, grasping the handles, pushing it up and down for a bit.

"I haven't been on a seesaw in a long time. What do you think?" Sonic said with a smirk.

Manik's eyes lit up in happiness instantly, his father was actually suggesting playing with him. He quickly ran over and got on the seesaw.

Sonic began moving the seesaw up and down, listening to his son's laughter as he continued. He smiled at hearing Manik's laugh; it was a laugh he hadn't heard in a while. Once done on the seesaw, the two quickly ran over to the merry-go-round, wanting to continue their fun.

Manik sat down, grasping the cold metal bars as Sonic began to push on the bars, running as fast as he could, and making the merry-go-round spin faster and faster. Once they came to a stop, Manik stumbled off the merry-go-round laughing about how dizzy he was.

Spotting a food stand, Sonic walked over and bought his son some strawberry gummies.

"Hey, Manik, got you a snack." Sonic said, holding out the bag of gummies.

"Dad, I don't like strawberry remember?" Manik pointed out.

"Oh, sorry about that." Sonic said, a hint of sadness in his voice.

"Though I appreciate the thought." Manik said with a small smile, taking the bag of gummies from his father.

Sonic smiled at this, believing that this may be the start to finally reforming the bond between him and his son. At that moment he felt a raindrop hit his head. He looked up to the sky, seeing dark clouds moving in, he knew that heavy rain was headed their way. He and Manik began to leave the park, wanting to get home before the rain started pouring, but then Manik stopped in front of the carousel.

"Hey, dad, can I have a ride on the carousel? Can I?" Manik pleaded.

Sonic was instantly reminded of the day of the accident, when Sonia pleaded to him that if she can have a balloon. He didn't want to ruin Manik's fun by choosing to grieve over Sonia now so he decided to let him ride the carousel. As Manik climbed up on one of the wooden horses, Sonic went over to the ticket booth and bought Manik a ticket. He walked back over to the front of the carousel, just in time to watch it moving. He waved to his son smiling, as he passed by on the wooden horse. Just then Sonic began to turn pale, his body began to shake violently, his breaths becoming quick and raspy once again, he was having another blackout. He tried to focus, knowing it would be a bad thing if he had a blackout in the park, but it was no use. He closed his eyes, losing consciousness. Sonic found himself in the now flooded park, looking around at everything that was submerged. He noticed a body drowning near the carousel, wondering who the person could be. He turned the person toward him and began to panic; the person in front of him was his son Manik, holding his neck as he drowned in the water. Sonic tried to reach him, but everything faded into black.

Sonic opened his eyes just in time to see a truck headed for him. He quickly jumped out of the way, tumbling across the road, hearing the truck's horns blare in his ears. Sonic stood up and looked around at his surroundings, it was now nightfall, heavy rain poured all over the city, and he was no longer in the park. Panic and fear over whelmed Sonic as he quickly began running back to the park, hoping his son was still there. He screamed Manik's name upon reaching the park, seeing no sign of anyone there. He ran to the carousel, seeing Manik's backpack lying in front of it. Sonic's heart began racing as he quickly ran home, hoping that his son was safe in his room. He reached his house in a matter of seconds thanks to his speed, ran up stairs, throwing open Manik's bedroom door, screaming his name when he saw the bedroom was empty. He ran back outside in the rain looking around once more, seeing no sign of Manik. Remembering what he always finds when he comes to from a blackout, he lifted his hand and to his horror there he saw an origami figure in his hand. Sonic threw the origami figure to the ground, falling to his knees, and screamed out Manik's name as loud as he could. He lowered his head and began crying, his son was gone.

Shadow tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for Silver the Hedgehog, captain of the Mobius police. His crimson eyes kept constantly glancing at the door, waiting for him to step out.

"Is it going to take long?" he asked a purple cat wearing white pants, a purple coat with a cape, red heels, white gloves, and a red jewel on her forehead.

"No he should be out soon." the cat replied.

Shadow crossed his arms in annoyance; the one thing he couldn't stand is having to wait for someone. Deciding to pass the time, Shadow slipped on the ARI glasses and glove, pulling up a virtual wall ball game. He tossed the glowing virtual ball in his hands a few times before throwing it at the wall. He watched as the ball bounced off the wall and headed straight back toward him, catching it successfully in his hand. He kept doing this as he waited; earning strange looks from cops walking by since to them he was throwing at nothing. Shadow's ears twitched when he heard the sound of a door opening. He took off his ARI glasses and glove, seeing a light-gray male hedgehog with white chest fur and gold eyes, wearing white gloves with cyan circles on them, and black boots walk out of the office.

"I swear it's getting tiring having to answer all those questions about the Origami Killer. Blaze, do me a favor and cancel the rest of my appointments." Silver said to the purple cat.

"Sure thing, Silver. Oh and Shadow the Hedgehog from GUN is here to see you." Blaze replied.

Silver turned around, finding himself facing Shadow who had the look of annoyance on his face.

"Oh, Shadow, you're here. I have to go to a press conference so we'll talk on the way there." Silver said.

As they walked toward the press conference, Shadow listened to Silver talk about how at first he didn't want GUN's help, but with the number of killings growing larger and having no leads to go by, they had no choice but to seek their help. He also warned Shadow that he didn't need to worry about having trouble working with Vector and Espio, that it was Metal Sonic he needed to be careful about since he has his own methods on how to handle things. They stopped in front of the doors leading into the press conference room.

"You can feel free to come in to watch, it'll give you an idea of the political climate around here, but if you want to go to your office just talk to Blaze, she'll show you where it is." Silver said before entering the press conference room.

Shadow didn't find the idea of watching a press conference interesting so he chose to go to his office so he could look over the clues he found at the crime scene. He walked up to Blaze's desk and noticed a gold watch lying on a basket with money inside.

"Nice watch." Shadow commented.

"Oh it's a promotion gift for our new lieutenant. We have been doing the same tradition for 20 years; we always give a gold watch to them. You can contribute to the fund if you like." Blaze replied.

Shadow reached into his coat pocket, pulling out his wallet, and placed five dollars into the basket.

"Silver, said you could show me to my office." Shadow said, placing his wallet back in his coat pocket.

"Of course just follow me." she said, getting up from her chair.

Shadow followed her to a door in the corner of the hallway.

She opened up the door, revealing a dusty unused office.

Shadow's nose cringed in annoyance; he did not like the fact that Silver had him placed in such a bad-looking office, though he was glad that no one could annoy him. Once Blaze left the room, Shadow closed the door behind her, and walked up to the dusty desk. He shoved everything on the desk off, and pushed the desk up against the wall. He sat down in the chair and put on his ARI glasses, making four virtual orbs appear in front of him that had water, a leaf, smoke, and planets. He crushed the orb with water in it, instantly transforming his surroundings into an underwater coral reef. He shoved away the orbs and pulled up the clues he had found at the crime scene. First he examined the orchid, letting out a sigh of annoyance when he saw that the flower was common, meaning that he couldn't track down the killer with that clue. Next he examined the origami figure, learning that there were no fingerprints on it. But by doing a geoanalysis he discovered there was only one origami shop in Mobius. Finally he examined the last clue the tire tracks, learning that they belong to a Chevrolet.

Putting away the clues, he pulled up two virtual files, one about the victims of the Origami Killer, the other about the Origami Killer himself. He opened up the file about the victims, reading how the killer kidnaps boys from ages eight to thirteen, that their bodies had always been found four to five days after they had been reported missing, and they were all drowned in rain water. Shadow marked on the map where each boy lived, discovering that the killer wasn't afraid to travel far from his home to kidnap his victims, meaning he would be hard to track down. He closed the file, opening up the one about the Origami Killer, reading about how he always leaves the victim's body with an origami figure and an orchid. Many people had been suspected but with no leads to go by they were never able to learn killer's identity. Seeing he had learned all the information he could, he took off the ARI glasses and glove, but then at that moment he clenched his teeth in pain. Shadow lifted his hand, seeing that it was starting to shake. He knew he was starting to lose control over his chaos powers again.

"I just need to go wash my face and then I'll be fine." Shadow thought to himself.

He got up from his chair, fighting off the pain that was coursing through his body as he made his way to the door. He tried placing his hand on the door handle but ended up bending over in pain.

"If I don't release some of my chaos powers I'm going to continue suffering pain, but if I do release them it'll cause a shockwave of energy, hurting anyone near me." Shadow thought.

Shadow thought about his choices, quickly coming up with a decision. He grabbed a hold of the door handle, deciding he rather suffer through pain than to get people hurt. He stumbled out of his office, spotting the restroom not far away. He tried walking as normal as he could, not wanting to draw attention toward himself. Once he got inside the restroom, he threw himself onto the sink, quickly turning the faucet nozzle on, allowing cold water to pour on his face, calming him so he could regain control over his chaos powers.

Meanwhile in another area of the headquarters, Sonic sat in a chair nervously, reporting to Vector and Espio about his son's disappearance.

"Okay tell us what happened." Espio said.

"Well I took my son to the park; he wanted to go on the carousel. He got on one of the wooden horses, I looked away only for a moment, and when I turned back he had disappeared." Sonic explained, not wanting the cops to know about his blackouts.

"What time did you arrive at the park and what does your son look like?" Espio asked.

"It was fifteen after four, Manik is a blue hedgehog and he was wearing white gloves, a beige coat, and red shoes." Sonic replied.

"You know what I can't figure out is how you didn't see your son disappear when you were right next to the carousel." Vector said.

"It's like I said I turned away for a moment and when I turned around he was gone." Sonic lied, he knew the cops wouldn't trust him if he told them about his blackouts.

"Another thing I'm wondering about is why you chose to report your son missing four hours after his disappearance." Vector said.

"I was searching all over the neighbor hood for him, I would have used my speed to search the area in minutes but the rain slowed me down." Sonic partly lied, it was true he was searching for Manik, but the rain didn't slow him down, he was suffering from his blackout during those four hours.

Shadow came out of the restroom, having regained control over his chaos powers. He noticed Vector and Espio talking to Sonic, deciding to investigate he walked over to them, he manage to hear Sonic finish his sentence about how he searched for his son.

"Did Manik have any particular difficulties? Anything that might have caused him to runaway?" Shadow asked, making his presence known.

Sonic took in a deep sigh and answered "Manik is a sensitive child. Our relationship has been a little difficult recently."

"Everything okay at school? Any particular problems between you and your wife?" Shadow asked, wanting to learn more about the situation.

Sonic squeezed his eyes shut when Sally was mentioned before answering "My wife and I have been separated for the last six months, but Manik would have not gone off without telling his mother or me."

Everyone was silent. Shadow crossed his arms thinking about the facts he just got, he knew it was possible that Manik could have run off but he figured that chance was slim since neither of his parents heard a word from him.

"That's all the questions we have for you. We'll search for your son through the night; he may show up in a few hours." Espio said.

Before Espio and Vector could leave Sonic said "Wait you don't think it could be the Origami Killer do you?"

Espio remained silent for a moment before replying "It's too early to say but if that does turn out to be the case then we only got four days to find your son alive."

Sonic's face turned pale at the thought of his son being somewhere trapped, full of fear as he waits for his eventual death.

Shadow watched as Sonic began to walk away, he too beginning to wonder if Manik had been truly kidnapped by the Origami Killer. He knew he couldn't take any chances, he had four days to figure out who the Origami Killer was or else they'll end up finding Manik dead.

Sally breathed deeply, trying to calm her nerves as she waited for Sonic to return from talking to the cops. When she saw Sonic coming back, she quickly stood up, her blue eyes full of concern and worry.

"Did they find something?" she asked, her voice with a hint of fear.

Sonic took in a deep sigh; he knew that Sally was worried about Manik just as much as he was.

"No. Nothing yet, but they're gonna keep looking through the night." he replied

Sally rubbed her arms nervously as she asked "Do they think it's the Origami Killer?"

Sonic looked around for a moment hesitating whether he should tell her or not, finally he replied "It's too early to tell, but it's a possibility."

Sally closed her eyes, forcing back tears of sadness and anger that threatened to come forth. She placed her face in her hands, thinking about how she already had lost her daughter Sonia, now her son is missing and possibly taken by the Origami Killer. She turned toward Sonic, her eyes full of anger and hurt.

"What happened, Sonic? How could you lose Manik like that? You should have never taken your eyes off him! How hard is it to keep your eye on a child in the park?" Sally began saying, her voice sounding like she was about to cry.

Sonic remained silent, feeling guilty that he couldn't tell Sally the true reason why he wasn't able to see Manik get taken. Tears began to form in Sally's blue eyes.

"Why did you leave him, Sonic? Why? Wasn't it enough losing Sonia?" she demanded.

Sally instantly froze, realizing what she had said to Sonic. See stared into his green eyes, seeing anger and sadness when he heard her saw those words. She lowered her head, realizing it an awful thing to say to him.

"I'm sorry. That's not what I meant to say. I miss him so much." Sally began crying, letting tears drip down her face, wanting to do nothing more than to hold her son in her arms once again.

Sonic began to reach out his arm, thinking about trying to comfort Sally, but he stopped and pulled away his hand, figuring that she wouldn't want that.

Sally turned away from Sonic, sitting back down in the chair, continuing to cry for her son.

That was when Sonic knew that no matter what he had to find Manik.

[sonicgirl313]

Chapter 5

Fang slowly pulled his car up to a small shop, planning to speak to the next family member of one of the victims of the Origami Killer. He entered the shop, the door rattling the bells, alerting the store manager of his presence. He saw the store manager was a brown coyote with blonde hair, blue eyes, wearing a blue jacket and red boots, his name was Antoine.

His blue eyes widened in surprise when he saw the purple weasel standing in front of his counter, he didn't think anyone would visit his store with heavy rain pouring outside.

"What can I do for you monsieur?" he asked.

"My name is Fang; I'm a private detective investigating the case of the Origami Killer. I'd like to ask you a few questions." Fang replied.

Antoine remained quiet, not liking it when someone would mention the criminal that took the life of his son.

"My son is dead, Monsieur Fang. I have nothing more to say." he replied with a sigh, feeling there was nothing he could do to help since he had failed in saving the life of his own son.

"The killer has kidnapped another victim. You could have information that may help me find the killer before he takes the life of young Manik the Hedgehog." Fang persisted, wanting to convince the coyote to tell about what he knows.

"I couldn't even save my son! How do you expect me to be able to help save the other one?" Antoine replied, his fists clenched tightly the more he thought about his dead son Jacques.

"I lost someone close to me too, but you've got to help me or the killer will end up claiming a tenth victim." Fang replied.

Antoine stared at Fang, his blue eyes filled with some anger but not as much as Mina had.

"If you lost someone then you should know exactly why I cannot help you." Antoine said.

Fang let out a deep sigh, knowing that no matter how much he tried, Antoine was not going to answer any questions. Deciding to make sure his visit wasn't a total loss, Fang walked to the back of the store to buy pocket lighters, since his was empty. While he was taking some lighters off the shelves, a brown dog wearing a gray jumpsuit and black boots enter the store. Fang turned around just in time to see the brown dog pull out a gun, pointing it at Antoine, demanding he give him his money.

Antoine's hands shook as he held them in the air, refusing to give up the money despite the fact he was being held at gun point.

Fang knew if he didn't do something quick, the robber would eventually shoot Antoine, so he decided to put his skills in action. He quietly sneaked down the aisle, grabbing a beer bottle carefully off of the shelf, continuing to approach the robber.

Antoine raised his eyebrows when he saw Fang continue to approach silently. Not wanting to alert the robber to Fang's presence he continued to stall by refusing to give the robber his money.

The dog had finally had lost his patience and began to pull the trigger.

Antoine closed his eyes, fearing that he was going to be killed right that moment, leaving behind his wife who'll be heartbroken.

Fortunately Fang made it just in time; he snuck up behind the robber, smashing the bottle against the dog's head. The robber held his head in pain, quickly turned toward Fang, only earning a kick in the stomach for that. He snarled, throwing punches at the purple weasel. Thinking fast Fang balanced on his tail, using both of his legs to kick into the robber's stomach, knocking him to the floor. Not wanting to give him a chance to get up, Fang pulled out his gun, and smashed the handle against the dog's head, knocking him unconscious.

Antoine let out a sigh of relief as Fang got off of the ground.

"Merci, Monsieur Fang, you had saved my life." he thanked.

"Don't mention it." Fang said as he began to leave the shop.

"Wait, Monsieur Fang!" Antoine cried out.

Fang stopped in his tracks, turning toward the brown coyote. Antoine ducked under his counter and pulled out a small shoe box.

"I found this in a locker that I opened by using a locker ticket that was inside a strange letter received. I did not understood how it was suppose able to help my save my Jacques, but perhaps it will help you save the other child." he suggested as he stood back up.

Fang took off the lid off the shoe box, finding five origami animal figures inside. He picked up the origami figure of a lizard, examining it for a moment before placing it back inside the box. He took the shoe box and left the store, leaving Antoine to think about how at first he believed there was no good in the world after his son was killed, but believed that Fang has proven to him that he was wrong, that there still was good in the world.

In another part of Mobius a pink female hedgehog with three curved bangs, short quills, light skinned muzzle as well arms and chest, wearing a red shirt and black shorts, tossed and turned on the couch she slept on, her forehead covered in sweat. Finally her green eyes shot open as she quickly sat up on the couch, taking deep breaths, frantically looking around at her surroundings. This hedgehog's name was Amy Rose. Amy rubbed her hand across her face, realizing that she had woken from another nightmare. She groaned at the fact she suffers from insomnia, something she developed after coming in with a near death experience when Mobius was still at war with Dr. Robotnik. Amy picked her watch off of the coffee table and saw it was only forty-four after two in the morning. Amy sighed, knowing that she needed to get her sleep, but that would be impossible with how much she had got shook up by her nightmare. She looked outside the window, seeing the heavy rain pelt at her windows, figuring there must be already an inch of water worth of rainfall with how long it had been raining.

Amy got up off of the couch, hoping that taking a warm shower would help her to fall back to sleep. She walked into her bathroom, taking off her shirt and shorts before turning the shower handle, creating hot water to start spraying from the shower head. She closed her eyes, letting her mind to relax as the hot water poured down on her head. She placed her hands on the wall, lowering her head so the water could trail down her back. Finally she shut off the shower, shaking her head to make her quills not drip as much. She grabbed a towel, dried herself off, and put back on her shirt and shorts.

"Nothing like a hot shower to help you go to sleep." Amy said to herself.

She walked out of the bathroom, but at that moment Amy heard a noise that sounded like someone running. She looked around, seeing her fridge door oddly open. She walked over to the fridge, closing the door slowly, trying to figure how it managed to open up when she didn't even touch it. All of the sudden all the lights in her apartment shut off. Amy started breathing hard, her heart racing from fear, turning her head as she frantically looked around. Her green eyes widened and her face turned pale when she saw a figure ran past her window. She quickly ducked down next to the fridge, panicking about how someone managed to get into her apartment. She glanced over at her desk, remembering how her cell phone was lying on it, and that she could use it to call for help. She ran over to her desk but to her horror the cell phone was not there. She turned her head toward the apartment door, she needed to get out of there and the door was her only exit. Taking a quick look around, she dashed toward the door, though her heart began to race faster when she found she couldn't open the door. She heard someone running toward her, this made her shake on the door handle more frantically, desperately trying to get the door open.

All of the sudden a black-masked figure grabbed Amy by her quills, pulling her head back.

Amy screamed in pain, jabbing her elbow into the figure's head, causing him to let go of her. She fell to the ground, backing away from the figure. Quickly she kicked over the ladder leaning against the wall, knocking it onto the figure. She stood up, taking a few steps back, only for her to be grabbed by her ankles by another masked figure. Amy screamed as she fell down, beginning to get drug across the ground by the second intruder. She clung her fingers onto a post in an attempt to stop being drug across the floor; unfortunately the figure pulled harder, causing Amy to lose her grip on the post.

The figure picked Amy up, threw her onto the kitchen counter, and pulled out a knife.

Quickly she held away the figure's hand holding the knife, forcing it away from her neck. Thinking fast Amy used her free hand to reach the broken tea cup and stab it into the figure's neck. She jumped off the kitchen counter, running away as the figure held his neck where he had been stabbed, screaming in pain.

As Amy ran the first figure from earlier grabbed her by the arm, throwing her onto the coffee table. She quickly rolled to the side when the figure tried to stab her and doing the same thing when he tried to attempt it a second time. Quickly Amy punched the figure, knocking him away from her. But when she tried to get off the coffee table a third masked figure appeared, trying to drag her off the table. She kicked the figure in the head, making him let go of her. Amy saw the figure that she punched running toward her. She threw her chair at him, causing him to fall to the ground, and quickly ran away again. She screamed when she found her path blocked by one of the figures and when she turned around there was another figure behind her. She quickly tried to run past the figure but ended up getting slammed against the wall by the figure. Wanting to escape Amy pulled the figure's head down, biting down hard on his ear, making him let go of her since he needed his hand to hold his ear in pain. Amy kept running, trying to figure why there were so many masked people in her apartment. Two figures grabbed Amy, knocking her to the ground. When she tried to get up the figure smashed her head against the coffee table. Amy breathing quickened when she saw the figure pull out a knife. She noticed a knife from one of the other masked figures lying on the ground.

Amy picked up the knife, stabbing the first figure in the leg and the second figure in the stomach. She got up and ran for the bathroom, quickly closing the door behind her and locking it. Amy backed away from the door, her heart racing, her breathing quick. At that moment her eyes widened when a figure grabbed her from behind and slapped his hand over her mouth. Her heart raced in fear when she saw the blade nearing her neck. Just as the figure was about to slit her throat, Amy woke up, sitting up on the couch, gasping for air. She looked around her apartment, seeing that nothing was broken, realizing she only had a nightmare. She hugged her knees to her chest, shaking in fear, thinking about how her nightmares had been getting worse. The only thing to calm her was the sound of rain pattering against the window.

The next morning, at Sonic's house, the blue hedgehog sat silently at the kitchen table, wondering where he could possible start to find his son. He tapped his fingers, knowing that he couldn't search the entire city for Manik, Mobius was just too big, and even with his speed he would never be able to find his son in four days before he ends up drowning. Everyone knew it was now certain that Manik had been taken by the Origami Killer when no one was able to find him, even when they searched for him all last night. Sonic took in a deep breath, placing his head in his hands, wishing there was a sign that would at least help him get started. He lifted his head out of his hands and glanced at the strange letter he received on Monday. He opened up the letter, reading the poem once again, the words seeming more spine chilling now that his son had been taken. He was about to put down the envelope until he noticed something inside. He shook the envelope seeing an object fall out into his hand. Sonic lifted the object up to his face and saw that it was a locker ticket. Sonic didn't know what it was for but he knew that it was his only clue to help him find his son.

He looked outside his window, seeing news reporters and journalists standing outside his front door, waiting for him to come out so they could interview him. Sonic didn't want to deal with the press; he needed to find his son as quickly as possible since he only had four days. He went through the backdoor, climbed over his fence, and headed for his car because he knew his speed would alert the press that he was trying to leave. He didn't want anyone to know he was leaving because he wanted to find Manik on his own. He blamed himself for his son getting taken; now he wants to do everything in his power to make up for his mistake. He got in the car, started it up, and drove off, figuring the press didn't pay attention to the car since he usual never drives.

A few minutes later Sonic had reached his destination, the train depot. Sonic spotted the lockers across the room, but he froze when he saw that the room was crowded. The crowds were like water to him, he couldn't run through them, slowing him down, making him feel useless, also because of the fact it was because of a crowd that he wasn't able to save Sonia in time. He quickly ignored his nerves; he needed to handle the crowd if he wanted to save Manik. So he took a deep breath and began to walk through the crowd. As he walked further and further into the crowd, he shook with nervousness, his green eyes constantly looking around, hating that his vision was being blinded. He began to panic, memories of the crowded mall with him frantically searching for his daughter began to fill his mind. He squeezed his eyes shut, holding his head. He couldn't stand the painful memories that were constantly surfacing his mind. All of the sudden at that moment everything fell silent. Sonic opened his eyes to see everything with a gray tint and everything frozen. He tapped an orange cat and to his surprise the body instantly collapsed on the floor.

"Dad." a ghostly female voice called out.

Sonic held his breath when he heard this. He saw red balloon coming into view and there he saw Sonia.

She looked around, her blue eyes emotionless. She was constantly calling out for him in a ghostly tone.

Sonic called out to her and began to run after her, knocking down anyone that was in his way. He managed to reach Sonia but to his horror she faded away in a white light. He heard her call out for him again. He looked around, spotting her walking on the other side of the room. Sonic began calling out her name again as he ran to the other side of the room, wanting to desperately reached her. He reached out his hand, trying to touch her shoulder, but just like last time she faded away. Sonic's green eyes darted around the room as he watched Sonia constantly appear and disappear, calling out to him in the same ghostly tone. Sonic held his head as her calls got louder until the room echoed with her ghostly call. Just then his eyes snapped open, hearing the sounds of the train depot, the colors back to normal, and everything moving again. Sonic looked to his left, surprised to see that he was in front of the locker room. He wondered what he had just seen a while ago about Sonia.

He took a deep sigh and muttered "It was only a nightmare. A horrible nightmare."

Focusing back on the task at hand, he entered the locker room, searching for the locker the third locker on the eighteenth lane. He walked through the different lanes until he spotted the locker he was looking for. He punched in the keypad code, hearing a beep indicating that it was now unlock. He cautiously opened the locker, to his surprise and confusion inside the locker was a shoe box. Deciding not to think about why there was a shoe box in locker, he grabbed the item, and quickly left the train depot.

Later that day Sonic had checked into a hotel, figuring that was the best place to rest up so no one would know what he was doing. He placed the shoe box on the table and opened it up. Inside he found five animal origami figures with numbers on them, a cell phone, and a gun. Sonic lifted up the gun, opening it up to see that it indeed had ammo. Quickly placing it back down, he directed his attention toward the black cell phone. He saw a memory chip and placed it in the slot on the phone. The screen lit up, a loading screen appeared, and when it finished to his horror he saw a video tape of Manik trapped in a well, filling with rainwater.

"Manik!" Sonic exclaimed at the sight.

"Dad, where are you? I'm so cold. Please dad help me!" Manik pleaded on the footage.

His face was deadly pale and he was standing in almost two inches of rainwater. He frantically looked around with his blue eyes wide in fear. He had his hands feeling against the wall, desperately trying to find a way out.

The footage cut off, making Sonic relieved that at least Manik was still alive, but also frightened when he saw his son's face at the fact he was trapped in a well that's water will keep rising. He didn't have to imagine how frightened Manik was; he could clearly see all the fear on his face. He also was worried when he saw how pale his son's skin was, he could tell the young hedgehog was already starting to die. Sonic clenched his fist, feeling anger toward the Origami Killer, the one who had sent him the shoe box, thinking what kind of sick person he was for sending him footage of his own son waiting to be drowned, not knowing exactly what game the killer was trying to play. Sonic opened his eyes when he heard the phone began to beep, he pushed the button and on the screen it began typing out a message.

Sonic green eyes widened when he saw the message read "How far are you prepared to go to save someone you love?"

[sonicgirl313]

Chapter 6

Sonic stared in shock at the message on the phone, wondering what exactly the Origami Killer was up to. He continued reading the message, discovering that each origami figure had instructions for a trial that had been set up for him and when he completes a trial he would receive letters for a hangman puzzle that would reveal the address of where his son was being held. But he couldn't use his speed at all to travel between trials or to complete them, otherwise he would automatically fail the trial, not receiving the letters needed, he even saw there was a speed monitor installed in the phone to make sure of it. Sonic clenched his teeth, he had to complete the mystery trials set up by a killer and it makes it worse that if he even tries to use his speed, he would lose the chance to save Manik. Sonic thought about the message asking him how far he was prepared to go to save someone he loved and he knew his answer. Sonic grabbed the brown origami bear with the number one marked on it. He unfolded it and saw it was a message with a card for car garage inside.

"Are you prepared to show courage to save your son?" Sonic read.

He noticed the address to a place called Babylon Rogue's Extreme Gear and Car Garage. Quickly he folded up the paper, placing it and the card in his jacket's pocket. He glanced over at the gun, debating whether he should take it or not. Finally he grabbed it off the table along with the black phone, hiding both of them away in his other jacket pocket. He placed the remaining four origami figures back in the box and hid it under the bed before quickly walking out of the door, remembering that his speed was forbidden to use. Not knowing what may lie ahead, Sonic knew that whatever it takes he needed to complete the trials.

Back at the police station Shadow was explaining to Silver, Vector, Espio, and Metal Sonic about the information he had gathered about the Origami Killer, explaining how the killer was a male between the ages eighteen and thirty. He also told that he believed the reason the killer has nothing personal against his victims, he kills them as more of a symbol, that after he's killed them he leaves behind an orchid and an origami with the victim's body to apologize to them for what he's done and has the victim's face covered in mud to make them anonymous. Silver, Vector, and Espio listened with interest; Metal Sonic on the other tapped his metal fingers on the desk with him, annoyed that they weren't already searching for the Origami Killer.

"Okay so this is supposed to help us how?" Metal Sonic asked.

Shadow clenched his fist, slightly angry that Metal Sonic was treating the information like it was nothing. He remembered how Silver warned him that Metal Sonic had his own methods for solving the case.

"The more you know about the personality of a criminal, the more you narrow down to a smaller amount of suspects." Shadow replied calmly.

Shadow watched as Metal Sonic crossed his arms and shook his head, he could already tell that Metal Sonic did not like his methods. He went on to talk about how he learned how large the killer's comfort zone was, explaining how when a criminal succeeds more and more with their crimes, the farther away they travel from their home, though he pointed out it would be hard to track down the Origami Killer with that technique due to the comfort zone being at least ten-square miles. Metal Sonic let out an annoyed sigh, believing that they were fixing to have to investigate at least ten-thousand people who lived in that area. Finally Shadow talked to them about the time when the killer kidnaps and kills him victims, that all the kidnappings and when the bodies were found four to five days after they had been taken happened when the amount of rainfall managed to reach a total of six inches.

"What on Mobius does that mean?" Silver asked.

"All the victims were drowned in rainwater." Shadow explained, "The killer kills only in the fall, when there is plenty of rain. He could have placed them in some sort of well or tank that is open to the skies, allowing it to fill up with rainwater. The more it rains, the less time the victim has to live."

Silver, Vector, and Espio looked at each other with shocked expressions, not knowing how much time they may have left to find Manik alive.

"So what's next?" Espio asked.

"There are two suspects I connected to crimes and their locations fit the 'comfort' zone. I'd like to question them." Shadow replied.

"Ugh we're wasting our time with this crap. The killer is out there and we're not going to find him by sitting around." Metal Sonic said, a hint of anger and annoyance in his voice.

Those words finally made Shadow lose his temper.

"Metal Sonic, I had enough of your crap! You've been chasing this guy for what-two years and what have caught? Nothing! Abso-freaking-loutely nothing!" Shadow yelled.

Metal Sonic's red eyes glared at Shadow as he yelled "What think you can do a better freaking job than me with your powers and stupid glasses? Well let me tell you something pal, that doesn't mean zip out there! You're just a freaking clueless hedgehog!"

Shadow wasn't about back down after Metal Sonic had that to him.

"Your vast experience hasn't prevented nine victims from being murdered!" Shadow stated.

"Freaking hedgehog, at least I wasn't the reason for a victim to get killed!" Metal Sonic snapped, standing up, knocking over his chair in the process.

On instinct Shadow instantly shot a chaos spear at Metal Sonic, knocking him to the ground. He was enraged that the robot had brought up how Maria was killed in crossfire from GUN, back when the organization deemed him a threat. He was still angry for what they had done but he remembered Maria's dying wish for him to help the people of Mobius. At first he ignored the wish, trying to get revenge instead, but in the end he finally realized that he wasn't honoring Maria by ignoring her dying wish. So he joined GUN to keep his promise to Maria. Metal Sonic got up, attempting to lunge at Shadow but he was held back by Espio and Vector.

"That's enough, Metal Sonic!" Silver said in a strict tone.

"Man remind me never to tick Shadow off." Vector muttered.

"You could start by not constantly asking people where the computer room is." Espio said.

Metal Sonic calmed down some but he was still angry. He shook off Vector and Espio, making them release his grip on him as he turned away from Shadow and leaned against the wall.

"You said it took six inches of rainfall before the victim died. How much time do we have left?" Silver said.

Shadow turned away from Silver, crossing his arms, and lowering his head a bit.

"If the weather forecasts are right, then we have less than four days." he answered.

Wanting to move fast Shadow left to find the first suspect, though he was glad that he would get help from Espio and Vector with finding the suspect. He was annoyed that he had to bring Metal Sonic as well, despite the fact he still had anger for toward him. They arrived at an apartment complex where an echidna named Menniker who was the suspect they were looking for. After climbing a few sets of stairs they reached the door to his apartment. Shadow knocked on the door a few times but no one answered.

"Guess there's nobody home." Vector said.

Metal Sonic shoved Shadow out of the way and kicked down the door.

"Now there is." he said before entering the apartment.

Shadow began to see what Silver had meant when he told him about Metal Sonic having his own methods about doing things; he knew that Metal Sonic was searching an apartment they didn't even have a warrant to search. But he knew the damage had already been done, deciding to search the apartment as well. Shadow's red eyes widen in surprise when he saw strange symbols all over the walls of the apartment.

Espio explained to Shadow that Menniker was obsessed about forming a group known as the Dark Legion ever since his father Dimitri was supposedly killed.

As Shadow continued searching the apartment he opened up cupboards to find tons of medications, revealing to him that Menniker was mentally ill.

Just then a red echidna with black bangs and beard, purple eyes, wearing a black cloak and gray boots entered the apartment. That echidna was Menniker.

"Well guess who finally showed up." Metal Sonic said as he walked up to Menniker.

"Not you bucket of bolts again. I swear you're like the spawn of Chaos." the echidna snarled.

"We'd like to ask you some questions, where were you yesterday?" Espio said.

"I was here alone all day; I had to work on my plans." Menniker replied.

"Yeah and I bet you were talking to the voices in your head." Metal Sonic said.

Menniker froze instantly when he said this.

Shadow questioned Metal Sonic about what he was trying to do but the robot ignored him.

"Obviously you listened to the voices and kidnapped Manik, all to get revenge for you father. You did it didn't you! The Origami Killer is you, Menniker, you kidnap boys and you drown them, all to silence the voices in your head and to avenge your father." Metal Sonic snarled, the volume of his voice getting louder with each word.

At that moment Menniker pulled out a gun and pointed it at Metal Sonic.

Shadow pulled out his gun upon seeing this.

"Return from whatever abyss you crawled out of!" Menniker hissed, his finger starting to pull the trigger.

"Shoot him!" Metal Sonic yelled at Shadow.

"Are you insane, Metal Sonic?! If Shadow kills him we'll lose information that could lead us to the killer!" Espio yelled.

Shadow kept his gun aimed at the red echidna, keeping his grip firm on the handle.

"That's right, Menniker, Metal Sonic is going to crawl back to the very abyss he came from. The evil robot is going to disappear." Shadow lied.

The blue robot glared at Shadow, angry that he didn't listen to him and shoot the echinda, also at the fact he was playing along.

Menniker calmed down as Shadow kept reassuring him that they weren't there to kill him, they were there to help him. Eventually the echidna slowly dropped his gun and raised his hands in the air.

Espio placed Menniker's hands behind his back, placing handcuffs around his wrist, and led him out of the apartment.

Shadow lowered his gun; he glanced over at Metal Sonic who took a moment to glare at him before storming out of the apartment.

"Wow you know how to handle a situation, if you weren't here Metal Sonic would have shot the guy." Vector commented before leaving.

Shadow looked around at the apartment one last time. He did admit that the echidna was mentally ill, but he couldn't bring himself to believe he was the Origami Killer. Shadow knew that Menniker's thirst for revenge for his father didn't match up to killing boys ages eight through thirteen, he knew if the echidna had wanted to kill for revenge he would have killed adults as well. He rubbed the back of his neck as he walked out of the apartment, hoping that the second suspect will provide better results in tracking down the Origami Killer.

Later that day, Fang pulled his car up to a small house, the home of the next family victim's family member. He wanted to talk to Rouge the Bat, the mother of Brock the Echidna who was the last victim before Manik's kidnapping. Fang walked up to the door, knocking a few times, seeing that no one was answering. To his surprise he turned the door knob to see it was unlocked. Fang walked inside, hearing the sounds of a baby crying. He walked into the living room, seeing a red female baby bat wearing a pink dress lying in a stroller, bawling for her mother. Fang looked around, noticing the floor was littered with beer bottles and used cigarettes. Finally he noticed a letter lying on the floor. When he picked it up and read it he froze in shock, it was a letter from Rouge, talking about she was going to commit suicide and wanted someone to take care of her baby. Fang quickly began searching the rooms, hoping that Rouge was still alive. When he tried to open the bathroom door, he saw it was locked; quickly he kicked the door open.

Once Fang ran into the bathroom he saw the white female bat wearing a black jumpsuit that showed cleavage with a pink heart on the front and white boots, lying in the bathtub. He looked down, seeing she had taken off her long white gloves to cut her wrist. Though he saw she was still alive because he could see her chest moved as she breathed. Quickly he kneeled down, propping up Rouge's back with one arm, picking up her legs with the other. Fang slowly stood up, being careful not to drop Rouge as he carried her over to her bed.

"I'm going to call an ambulance." Fang said as he laid her down on the bed.

Rouge weakly placed her hand on the purple weasel's shoulder, begging "No I don't want to go to the hospital, please."

Fang was shocked that the female bat before him was refusing to go to the hospital after she had just attempted to commit suicide. He took a deep sigh deciding to honor her wish, figuring that at least he could ask her questions after he did something about her badly bleeding wrist.

"Okay, you got anything around here I can use to treat this wound with?" Fang asked.

Rouge took a deep breath, finding it hard to breath with how much blood she has lost.

"Yeah I think so." she replied, closing her eyes, revealing the blue eye shadow on her eyelids.

"Okay don't move, I'll be back." Fang said.

He quickly ran into the bathroom, opening up the cupboards to find medical supplies. He took everything off of the shelves, emptying the cupboard before rushing back to Rouge's bedside. Fang laid the medical supplies on the bed, opening up the alcohol and pouring it on a rag.

Rouge inhaled sharply as Fang wrapped the alcohol soaked rag around her wrist, holding it in place for a moment, before finally cleaning away the blood.

He held Rouge's wrist carefully, making sure not to hurt her as he began wrapping bandages around her arm. Once he finished he took out two band-aids, placing them on the on the bandages to hold them in place. He sighed in relief that he managed to get there in time, if he had came any later Rouge might have been dead. At that moment she quickly sat up, her teal eyes filled with worry.

"My baby she needs me!" she exclaimed.

Rouge tried to get out of bed, only to have Fang gently push her back down; she knew he wouldn't let her do anything in the condition she was currently in.

"Can you please take care of Ruby?" she asked.

Fang felt like he was going to faint when he heard the question, he couldn't believe that he was just asked to do some babysitting. He didn't like the idea at all; he didn't think a person like him was the type of person to have to take care of a baby. He looked down at Rouge's bandaged wrist, knowing she couldn't tend to the baby in her state. With a sigh he tilted his brown hat before walking into the living room to take care of the baby, hoping that he'll get good information for doing this. He leaned over the stroller, seeing tears streak down Ruby's face as she continued to bawl. He was about to pick her up until he saw the blood on his brown gloves. Not wanting to get blood on the baby, he slipped off his gloves, sticking them in his coat pocket. Fang took a sniff of the air, crinkling his nose and frowned when he realized that he had to change the baby's diaper. He picked Ruby, placing her on the diaper changing counter, taking off her diaper. He gagged and quickly threw away the diaper before cleaning up the baby. With that done he began to put a clean diaper on Ruby.

"Am I even doing this right?" Fang muttered to himself as he connected the tabs, hoping he didn't have to start over.

He sighed in relief when he saw he had placed the diaper on correctly. He looked at Ruby and noticed her crying had stopped. Instead she was giggling and gurgling as if she knew that Fang didn't enjoy having to change her diaper. When he laid her back down in the stroller, he groaned when she began crying again, figuring this time she was hungry. Fang walked into the kitchen, noticing a bottle of milk on the counter. He warmed it up for a bit before walking back into the living room, picking up Ruby, and began feeding her the milk. As Ruby drank down the milk, Fang was glad that no one could see him, figuring they would laugh that a tough guy like him was having to feed a baby. He took away the bottle once it was empty, narrowing his eyes when he began patting on the baby's back until she burped. With that done, Fang began rocking the baby asleep, watching as her purple eyes closed slowly. He gently laid Ruby back in the stroller when she fell asleep and went back in the bedroom to check on Rouge.

Seeing the purple weasel enter the room, Rouge sat up on the bed, adjusting herself so she could talk to him.

"Thanks for looking after my baby." Rouge said quietly, "I didn't want to leave her, I just couldn't cope anymore. First my son is killed and then Knuckles goes missing."

Rouge began wiping away tears that began forming in her eyes, getting more sad as she thought about her dead son and the man she loved gone missing.

Fang sat down on the bed next to Rouge, rubbing her shoulder, trying to comfort her over her recent loss.

Rouge lowered her head and began crying, she couldn't hold in the sadness anymore, that's why she tried committing suicide, she wanted to end her pain.

"Did Knuckles say anything before he went missing?" Fang asked.

"No he just read a strange letter he received and took off without a word. He came home the first day but the next day he never did. I did though find a strange black cellphone he left behind." Rouge replied.

"Cellphone?" Fang said as his eyebrows rose in interest.

"Yeah, I knew the cellphone wasn't his. I tried to turn on the cellphone but it didn't work." she replied.

"Do you still have it?" Fang asked as he got off of the bed.

"Yeah it's in a drawer in the living room." Rouge said, turning her head to look at the doorway.

"Okay well go live with some family members or friends for now; they'll help take care of you and Ruby. Hopefully Knuckles will end up turning up, but if he doesn't you should stay with whoever you're going to stay with." Fang said.

Rouge nodded, lying back down on her bed, and taking a deep breath. She looked over at the picture with her smiling, holding Ruby, and standing next to Knuckles who had Brock on top of his shoulders. She closed her teal eyes, wishing that they were still there with her.

Fang hated to leave Rouge in the depressed state she was in, but he knew he had a job to do. He went into the living room, opening up the drawer to find the black cellphone inside. He pushed the button but the screen did not come on. Deciding not to worry about this, he placed the cellphone in his coat pocket, figuring he got all the information he could from Rouge. Before he walked out of the door he took one last look at Ruby sleeping in the stroller, hoping her and Rouge manage to make it through the tragedy they were suffering from.

[sonicgirl313]

Chapter 7

Sonic walked through the pouring heavy rain, hating that the rain was now a timer for how much time his son had left to live. His green eyes glanced up, spotting the sign for Babylon Rogue's Extreme Gear and Car Garage, the place where the message told him to go. He walked inside seeing a gray male albatross with black flame tattoos on his arms, wearing goggles, yellow gloves, and black shoes, snoring as he slept in a chair. Sonic leaned against the wall, knocking against it to get one of the employees' attentions. His ears twitched when he heard the sound of objects moving around in the office. Finally a purple female swallow with white flame tattoos on her arms, wearing white pants with purple flame designs on them, white gloves, a white bandanna, a white strapless-shirt, yellow sunglasses on her forehead, and red shoes, came walking out of the office. The swallow's name was Wave. He looked at her curiously when she was straightening out her top, as if she had put on in a hurry.

Her blue eyes glanced at Sonic, a hint of annoyance in them.

"Remind myself never to leave Storm to watch the front desk again since he'll sleep on the job. Anyway what can I do for you?" she said.

Sonic reached into his coat pocket, pulling out the card he found inside the origami bear figure, handing it to Wave.

"I came here to pick up... my car." Sonic said, stopping for a moment in between his words.

Wave looked at the card, raising an eyebrow in interest.

"About time someone picked up that car, ever since some guy dropped of the car for his friend it has been sitting here for two years. I'm guessing you're the friend he was talking about." Wave said as she walked behind the desk to get the car keys.

Sonic froze as he thought about Wave's words. She told him that someone dropped off the car for him two years ago, the time around his blackouts started. He began to wonder if it could be possible that he did more than wander around in his blackouts, all he knew is that when he comes to he has an origami figure in his hand and the news of a child being kidnapped by the Origami Killer followed the next day. He pushed these thoughts to the side when he saw Wave approaching him with the car keys in her hand.

"Your car is on the third floor, now I have to go and finish up the discussion I was having with my boss Jet." Wave said before walking back into the office.

Sonic walked over to the elevator, pressing the down button, tapping his foot impatiently as he waited for the doors to open up. Once the elevator doors opened up, he walked inside, pressed the third floor button, and rode the elevator down to his destination. He walked out of the elevator, looking around at the many cars, not sure which one was the one he was supposed to be looking for. Sonic looked at the keys, seeing that it had a remote, figuring he could use it to locate the car. He raised the keys over his head, hitting the car unlock button, and began looking for which car reacted. At the end of the parking lot he saw a blue car's lights flash on, revealing that was the car he was looking for. He went over to the car and got inside, noticing a GPS in the car pocket next to him. He plugged in the GPS, pressing the power button to turn it on. Sonic leaned back in the car seat quickly when the GPS began giving him directions without him putting any commands, figuring it was programmed with the set directions by the Origami Killer.

Deciding not to worry about where the GPS was going to take him, only wanting to complete the trial to save his son, he turned on the car, and began following the directions on the GPS. After driving for four miles, Sonic had finally reached the destination the GPS had led him to. He looked around in confusion, seeing that he was in the middle of the highway, the rain pouring harder than it did earlier.

"Are you ready to show your courage in order to save your son?" the GPS asked.

Sonic listened as the instructions for the first trial was given to him. His eyes widened in fear and shock, discovering that the trial he had to do was to drive for five miles in the opposite direction of traffic and he had to do it in five minutes or he would fail. He knew it was risky, not only he was going to drive head on into traffic, but he would also have to have quick reactions or will end up crashing due to the rain making the roads slick. Sonic took a deep breath; he needed to save Manik no matter the cost, even if it meant risking his life. He slammed his foot on the gas, shifting the gear into drive, and headed toward the traffic. Sonic's grip on the steering wheel tightened as he constantly turned the wheel quickly, narrowly avoiding cars headed straight for him. Unfortunately one of the cars he didn't dodge fast enough, causing the side to get clipped by the passing car, and starting to spin out. Sonic clenched his teeth as he spun the steering wheel, trying to regain control of the car. The car's back-end got hit by another incoming car before Sonic managed to straighten out the car, regaining control once again. He glanced at the GPS, seeing he only had four miles left to go.

He turned sharply out of the way of an incoming car, scrapping against the road wall for a few moments. Sonic's grip tightened on the wheel when he saw a purple walrus on the side of the road, trying to change a flat tire on his car. Sonic turned quickly began spinning the wheel to the right, screaming for the walrus to get out of the way despite the fact the walrus couldn't hear him.

Fortunately the walrus spotted Sonic and jumped out of the way as the car was turning away from him.

Sonic sighed in relief but he knew he wasn't out of danger yet. Up ahead his path was blocked by cars headed his way, forcing him to hit the gas and drive over a construction sign, continuing on a closed part of the road. His knuckles began turning white as he turned and swerved past construction workers, not wanting to hit and injure one of them. Sonic managed to make it out of the construction zone safely, hearing the GPS alert him that he had three miles left to go. A hub cap slung off of his car when he sharply turned, hitting a car and causing it to spin out. Sonic could feel his palms get sweaty as he narrowly dodged the car that was spinning out of control.

His breathing became faster and faster as he continued dodged cars, the turns getting tighter by the second, and the spaces were getting smaller with each incoming car. He kept focusing on getting to the end, hearing the GPS tell him that he only had two miles left to go. He yelled in anger when he saw he was heading for a road toll gate and that at the moment a car was starting to pull out of it. Luckily the car quickly backed up just before Sonic's car smashed through the toll gate block. The blue hedgehog groaned in annoyance when the sounds of police sirens filled the air. Two police cars sped up next to Sonic, one on each side of the car. He knew couldn't give up, not when he saw he had only one mile to go. Sonic quickly swerved the car to the right, pulling away from the police car next to him. His eyes widened in fear when he saw a truck attempting to get out of the way but dropped a propane tank on the road from turning too sharply. Sonic luckily managed to dodge it, but one of the cop cars crashed into it. Sonic looked ahead, seeing a bunch of cars heading for him and only one small opening. He drove through the opening, scrapping against the side of a truck but still managing to make it through. The cop car though ended up crashing into the truck head on.

Sonic was about to take in a sigh of relief until he saw more cops ahead with their cars spread out to create a roadblock. He slammed his foot on the gas, smashing two police cars out of the way. One cop shot at Sonic's car, blowing out one of the tires. Sonic tried to regain control over the car but due to how slick the roads were his car went off of the road, spinning in air for a few seconds before landing upside. Sonic groaned as opened his eyes, feeling blood streak down his forehead, hearing the GPS tell him he successfully made it and needed to touch the screen to continue. He moved his hands around the roof of the car, coughing from the smoke coming from the fire that developed from the crash. He weakly reached out his hand, pressing his finger against the GPS screen.

"Trial complete. Your reward is in the glove compartment." the GPS said.

Sonic clenched his teeth in anger; he couldn't believe the clue to help him find Manik was in the glove compartment the entire time. He tried opening the glove compartment but discovered that it was locked. He heard GPS tell him that the key was inside itself. He grabbed the GPS, banging it against the windshield to break it open; trying to hurry when he saw the flames was engulfing the car get larger by the second. Finally the GPS broke open, revealing a small silver key. He leaned up as best as he could, placing the key in and unlocking the glove compartment. His green eyes watched as a small black memory chip fell out of it. He picked it up and quickly unbuckled himself, causing him to fall on the ceiling of the car. He crawled over to the car door, needing to escape before the flames cause the car to blow up. He tried opening the door, but unfortunately it wouldn't budge. Thinking fast he began kicking at the door behind him at full force until finally it swung open. He crawled out of the car, running away from it, just in time before it blew up. Sonic's breathing was hard, his heart racing at unbelievable speeds, scared of what the other trials would have in store for him.

He pulled out the black cellphone, placing the new memory chip inside the slot. The loading screen appeared and the video that pulled up made Sonic feel worse than the crash made him feel. There was the video of Manik inside the well once again, the water higher than it was last time, his blue eyes looking around in fear as he desperately tried jumping up to grab a hold of the bars that sealed the well's opening, wanting to escape. Sonic fell to his knees when the screen went to black, hating the fact that the Origami Killer continued to torture him with the reminder that his son's time was running out. He saw the hangman puzzle appear on the screen, the letters r,e,t and the number five appear on the puzzle. Sonic was happy that he got some of the letters, but he was still nowhere near to being able to save his son. He slowly stood up, feeling pain course through his side, causing him to hold it in pain. Clenching his teeth in pain, Sonic began the long walk back to his hotel.

Three hours later the rainfall had finally reached two inches, Amy now wearing a red shirt, blue jeans, red boots, white gloves with gold bracelets, and a brown jacket, pulled up to a hotel on her black motorcycle. She pulled off her helmet, shaking out her pink quills for a moment before laying it on the motorcycle, and walking inside to the lobby to check in. She walked up to the front desk, ringing the bell to get the clerk's attention. Amy groaned when she saw the clerk was a large purple cat with yellow eyes, wearing tan gloves, a tan belt, and yellow sandals.

"Oh hi my name is Big." the cat said.

"Hi, I would like a room." Amy said with a fake smile, not wanting Big to know she was actually annoyed by him.

Without a word Big handed Amy the register for her so she could get a room.

As she filled it out, she heard on the news them talk about Manik who had gone missing and that police suspect that he may have been taken by the Origami Killer, they also stated how witnesses claim that Manik's father Sonic the Hedgehog hasn't been in his home, leaving them to wonder where he disappeared to. Amy listened to the news with interest as she finished filling out the register, wondering how awful it was that a father had his own son taken from him. She didn't want to imagine what he would end up like if the police didn't find Manik in time.

Big took the register away from Amy, reading what she had written down.

"Hmm, Amy Rose, age eighteen. How long will you be staying with us, Miss Rose?" Big said once he finished reading.

Amy leaned her head on her hand, remembering her recent nightmare she had last night.

"I don't know yet." she answered.

Without saying a word Big pulled out room keys, handing them to Amy, telling her that her room was two-hundred and one, located on the last floor.

Amy nodded and gave a fake smile toward the cat, still finding him annoying, before walking out side to go to her room. She walked across the courtyard, climbed the stairs, and reached the top floor. She spotted her room and was about to go inside until she saw a blue hedgehog leaning on the railing, it was Sonic. Her green eyes studied his features, seeing he looked depressed about something. Worried about him, she slowly walked up to him.

"Um are you okay?" she asked him.

Sonic stood up while slowly turning toward Amy causing their green eyes making contact.

Amy gasped when she saw his forehead was bleeding badly.

He tried to take a step toward her but ended up collapsing.

Luckily Amy managed to catch him in her arms, holding him up the best she could.

"I'll call an ambulance." Amy said.

Sonic shook his head, breathing hard as he said "No ambulance, just please help me to my room."

Amy felt that the blue hedgehog wasn't making the smartest choice. She could see he was hurt and needed a doctor, but she figured there was no sense arguing with a person she just met, so she agreed to help him to his room. He told her that his room was two-hundred and seven; surprising her at the fact he was only a few doors down from her. She threw his arm around her shoulder, supporting him so he could walk, making sure he didn't fall over. She walked him over to the door, taking his room key from him, unlocked the door, and pushed it open with her foot. Amy walked inside, helping Sonic get over to the bed so he could sit down.

"You should really see a doctor, you're in bad shape." Amy said as she slipped his jacket off of him, taking notice how firm his chest was.

"Eh I've been through worse." Sonic said, giving a weak smirk before holding his side in pain.

Amy glanced at his bleeding forehead, figuring that at least she could treat it so it wouldn't get infected. She went into the bathroom, opening up the cupboard to find medical supplies like she hoped. She grabbed the cotton balls and alcohol before walking back to Sonic. Though she couldn't help but wonder what happened to him to leave him in such an injured state. She didn't want to ask questions immediately, especially when he was hurting, so she decided to hold of all her questions for a while. She opened up the alcohol, pouring some of it onto the cotton ball.

"I'm going to disinfect your wounds, this may sting a little." she said.

She pressed the cotton ball against Sonic's forehead and began slowly cleaning away the blood.

Sonic clenched his teeth a bit but he didn't flinch in pain as the pink hedgehog in front of him tended to his wound.

Once she finished she threw away the cotton ball and put the lid back on the alcohol.

"There at least your cut won't get infected, I'll go see if I can find something else for you." she said before walking back in the bathroom.

She looked around the cupboard, spotting painkillers with the label warning only to take one every twenty-four hours. Amy took the pills off the shelf, walking back to Sonic and giving him one pill.

"Here's a painkiller, it should help with the pain." Amy said.

To her surprise Sonic took the entire bottle from her, emptying all the pills into his hand.

"It says on the bottle only to take one every twenty-four hours, I don't think it's a good idea to exceed the dose." Amy warned.

Sonic swallowed down all the pills, tossing the empty bottle onto the bed.

"I can't afford to wait; I'm going to take a shower." Sonic replied.

When Sonic tried to get up Amy wrapped her arms around his arm, helping him up, concerned and confused why he chose to bare through the pain. When they reached the bathroom she let go of his arm, stepping away from the door so he could close it. But then she began to worry that he could pass out in the shower without her knowing. Seeing he hadn't closed the door all the way she peeked through the crack, making sure that Sonic was okay. She saw in the mirror that she could see a glimpse of him leaning on the shower wall, letting the water run down his back. Amy blushed at this, quickly backing away from the bathroom door.

"Talk to me so I'll know if you end up passing out." Amy said, finding it better than peeking through the bathroom door.

"What's your name?" Sonic asked.

"Amy Rose." she answered.

"Are you staying in the hotel?" he asked.

Amy paced around the room, taking a look around, still wondering how he ended up in his current state.

"No I live in town, I suffer from chronic insomnia. I seem to only be able to sleep in hotels, don't ask me why. Whenever I get too exhausted, I come and spend a night here." she explained.

She looked down at his bed, noticing something peeking out from underneath it. She leaned down, wanting to get a closer look. She was about to pull up the covers to see what was underneath the bed until she heard Sonic's voice.

"So what do you do for a hobby, Amy, besides fixing up strangers?" Sonic asked.

Amy quickly stood up, not wanting Sonic to know she had been looking around in his room.

"I'm a photographer; I take pictures of furniture for fashionable design magazines. What about you?" Amy replied.

"I don't really have a profession or anything; mainly I just do a lot running. It always nice to take some runs around cities or other places, gives the feeling of adventure." Sonic admitted, wondering why he was admitting this to a girl he just met.

Amy heard the shower water shut off and soon enough Sonic came out of the bathroom.

"Well um thanks, Amy, for staying. I feel a lot better now." Sonic said, wanting Amy to leave so he could set out to complete the second trial.

Amy stared at him, her green eyes full of concern as she said "Oh well okay I guess I'll be going then."

She began walking to the door but then stopped when she realized something.

"By the way you never told me your name." she said.

Sonic glanced at her, seeing she was curious of the name of the hedgehog she just had to help.

"Sonic." he replied.

Amy's eyes widened at this, she recognized his name from the TV in the lobby, and she knew that he was the father of Manik the boy who got kidnapped by the Origami Killer. She knew that he was there for a reason, but decided not to ask, figuring his reasons were personal.

"Be careful, Sonic." she said, hoping at least he wouldn't get hurt worse than he already before walking out the door.

Sonic sighed, wondering why Amy stayed with him and helped him. He wanted to repay her but he couldn't. What mattered to him was completing the trials so he could save Manik. He pulled the box out from underneath his bed, placed it back on the desk, and emptied out the origami figure. He picked up the white butterfly origami figure, unfolding it to find a message written inside just like the last one.

"Are you prepared to suffer to save your son?" Sonic read.

He saw the message had an address for an old power plant. He quickly threw back on his brown jacket and went out the door, wanting to get the second trial over with so he could one step closer to saving his son Manik.

[sonicgirl313]

Chapter 8

Shadow's crimson eyes followed the drops of rain travel down the windshield, waiting for the next suspect Bark the Polar Bear to appear. He, Vector, Espio, and Metal Sonic sat silently in the car, neither attempting to start a conversation. Shadow looked back at Vector and Espio, curious as to why they got on the case of the Origami Killer. He decided to ask them, not wanting to talk to Metal Sonic due to their disagreement about the use of methods.

"So when did you two first get on the case?" Shadow asked.

To his surprise Vector closed his eyes, letting out a deep sigh, the look of depression on his face.

Espio turned his head toward Shadow, his gold eyes filled with some anger, mainly focused and determined.

"There use to be three of us." Espio started, "A kid named Charmy, sure he was annoying at times, but he meant well. One day he took off, wanting to find a clue we were looking for on another case, but he never came back. We didn't find him until it was too late, four days after he had gone missing, his body was found dead on a wasteland, he had been drowned in rainwater by the Origami Killer."

Shadow was shocked by this; he couldn't believe that one of Vector and Espio's friends was one of the victims. He remembered when looking at the files of the victims he did see Charmy's name along with the picture of a small male bee. Shadow understood why Vector and Espio were on the case, they wanted to find the killer and avenge their friend. He closed his eyes, knowing that Vector and Espio were feeling the same thing he had felt when Maria was killed. Now more than ever Shadow wanted to find the Origami Killer, he wanted to help Vector and Espio find the guy that had taken the life of their friend. He opened his eyes when he heard that Metal Sonic had spotted their suspect.

A beige male polar bear with red eyes, wearing a red hat, a green scarf, brown gloves and shoes was walking down the sidewalk.

Shadow, Vector, Espio, and Metal Sonic quickly got out of the car, stopping Bark in his tracks.

"Bark, we'd like to ask you some questions." Espio said.

The polar bear said noting as he took a few steps past Espio, but then all of a sudden he punched Espio, knocking him out, and shoved Vector out of his way as he began to run.

Shadow quickly ran after him, not intending to let him get away. He chased him across the road, jumping over the front of the first car and almost getting hit by the second one. They both ran into the food market, Bark knocking down food stands and shoving people at of his way, anything to get rid of his pursuer, but Shadow continued to chase him.

Bark knocked trays of fish he ran by, causing ice to spill onto the floor, hoping that would slow the black hedgehog.

Shadow slipped around on the ice, trying to get off of it as fast as he could to go after Bark. Luckily he managed to get off the ice, running faster when he saw the growing distance between him and Bark.

The polar bear clenched his teeth in anger, seeing he was still being chased, quickly he began throwing vegetables off a nearby stand at the black hedgehog.

Shadow shielded his face with his arms, thinking about how stupid that vegetables were being thrown at him, wondering who would be stupid enough to use vegetables as a weapon. He lowered his arms, just in time to see Bark run into the meat locker room. He ran inside the freezer, seeing only giant pieces of meat hanging from the ceiling and no sign of Bark.

Shadow pulled out his gun, carefully looking around, readying himself if Bark jumped out to attack him.

At that moment Bark came out of hiding, holding a crowbar. He swung down hitting Shadow's arms.

Shadow yelled in pain as he dropped the gun. Before Bark could swing again Shadow slammed him into the wall, causing the crowbar to get stuck in one of the giant pieces of meat hanging from the ceiling.

The polar bear shoved him away, quickly running toward the exit of the freezer room. Fortunately Shadow pulled the crowbar out of the piece of meat and threw it at Bark, knocking him to the ground.

He ran over, trying to knock the polar bear to the ground but he didn't make it in time as Bark hit Shadow with his arm, knocking him toward the cutter table.

Bark picked up the crowbar, swinging it at Shadow, aiming for his chest.

Luckily Shadow managed to roll out of the way of this attack.

Bark ran toward Shadow, the crowbar raised in the air, wanting to plunge it into the black hedgehog's head.

Shadow dodged once again, punching the polar bear in the stomach, unfortunately this allowed Bark an opening attack.

He swung the crowbar, successfully stabbing the black hedgehog in the chest.

Shadow yelled in pain, quickly backed away as he held his hand over the wound in his chest, thankful that it wasn't fatal.

When Bark tried swinging again Shadow grabbed the crowbar with both hands, forcing it toward his opponent.

Thinking quickly Bark head-butted Shadow, knocking him back against the cutter table so he could force the crowbar down onto his neck.

Shadow choked as the crowbar was being forced down on his neck, using all his might to shove it off of his neck.

Bark pushed down harder on Shadow's neck, causing him to fall onto the cutter table, thinking he may actually succeed in killing the black hedgehog. But what he didn't intend on was Shadow raising his hand and blasting a chaos spear at him, knocking him back.

Shadow gasped for air as he rubbed his neck, quickly running over and knocking out Bark before he could get up.

Metal Sonic came running into the freezer, seeing that Shadow had already defeated the suspect.

Shadow breathed deeply, holding his bleeding chest, hoping that they had finally caught the Origami Killer.

It was twenty-eight after seven at night. Fang rubbed his eyes as he lifted his head off of his desk; he had fallen asleep while looking over files about the victims of the Origami Killer. He leaned back in his chair, stretching his back until he heard a satisfying pop. He looked down at the files on his desk, wondering how much time Manik had left to live before he ends up drowning. He had already had seen all the families of the victims but he was a little upset that all he got was a box of origami figures and a cellphone. At that moment he heard his doorbell ring. He got out of his chair, rubbing the back of his head as he walked to the door, wondering who would come to his apartment at such a late hour. He opened the door and to his surprise there standing outside his door was Mina now dressed in a black raincoat, green boots, blue jeans, and white gloves.

Mina pushed back some of her purple hair, her green eyes staring into his shocked blue ones.

"You said to talk to you if I remembered anything." she said.

She looked around, seeing Fang was still surprised by her appearance.

"Can I come in?" she asked.

Fang blinked his blue eyes for a moment before nodding his head and stepping to the side to let Mina in.

She walked through the door, her head constantly turning as she looked around at the apartment; she had to admit it was nicer than the hotel room she had to live in.

Fang took Mina's coat off of her, seeing that she was wearing her black tank top still. He hung up the coat before walking over to his desk, sitting back down in the chair.

"Remember when I told you Skye's father Tails took off after he read some strange letter, well I actually still have it." Mina said, handing Fang the white envelope.

He took the envelope in his hands, noticing how the envelope didn't have a return address. He flipped the envelope around in his hands; not bothering to open up the letter to see what was inside.

Mina bit her lip, hoping the letter could actually help them learn the identity of the Origami Killer.

"Well nothing particular." Fang started, but his blues eyes focused closely on the envelope as he continued, "Except for the address."

Mina's eyes widen in hope, thankful at the fact she held onto the letter instead of throwing it away.

Fang explained to her that the address was typed with an old typewriter but he wasn't sure if it could be a lead or not.

Mina sighed at this though, hoping the letter would be more useful in the future of Fang's investigation.

"Well thanks for the tip, you can go now." Fang said.

"No, I want to help you find the Origami Killer." Mina said.

Fang's blue eyes widened at this, thinking that she was out of her mind for wanting to help him. He didn't want her to tag along, not wanting to have to save her if things went wrong.

"Look I'm investigating a dangerous killer, the last thing I need is to play bodyguard." he replied.

Mina glared at Fang for his answer, quickly snatching the letter off his desk.

"If you don't bring me along, then you don't get the letter." she said in a strict tone.

Fang groaned in annoyance at this, he needed the letter and the only way he was going to get it was to let Mina investigate with him. With an annoyed sigh he held out his brown gloved hand, nodding his head in agreement.

Mina grinned in victory and shook Fang's hand, believing with Fang's help she will finally be able to find the man who killed her son.

Fang quickly got out of his chair, putting on his brown trench coat, telling Mina that the first thing he wanted to do was interview a squirrel named Ray who was suspected of being the Origami Killer.

Later that day Fang and Mina pulled up at Ray's house, their eyes widening when they saw there was a big party being held there. They walked up to the front door, opening up to see tons of people drunk, some dancing, some couples getting carried away with themselves.

Mina cringed her nose at the site, having grown a dislike toward drunks from living in the hotel. She unconsciously grabbed a hold of Fang's arm, surprising him by this action but understanding why she did it.

He walked around in the crowd, feeling Mina's grip on his arm tighten when a couple of drunken guys were staring at her. Seeing no sign of Ray, Fang figured that he was upstairs. He shook Mina off of his arm before walking up to the two guards that blocked the path to the stairs.

"I'm here to see Ray; I would like to ask him a few questions." Fang said.

"Beat it buddy, Ray doesn't want to be disturbed." the guard snarled.

"Fine then just tell him that Fang wants to talk to him." he said in a more aggressive tone.

"You're starting to tick me off! Now get lost before I get angry." the guard snarled again.

Fang glared at the guard for a moment before walking away, knowing that he needed a different strategy. That's when he came up with an idea; he pulled Mina close to him, telling her what to do.

Mina nodded before walking up to the guards, pretending to be drunk. She wrapped her arms around one of the guards, her eyelids half closed, swaying her hips back and forth. She let go of the guard raising her arms in the air, remembering Fang's plan. She took a few steps away from the guards before pretending to pass out on the floor. The guards ran over to her, trying to get her to wake up while Fang walked past them and went up the stairs.

Fang had to admit that Mina was a pretty good actress, a small part of him now glad that she came along to help him. He looked around; searching different rooms till finally in one room he found a yellow squirrel with blue eyes, wearing a blue jacket, white gloves, and blue shoes, sitting on a couch, laughing as he watched a cartoon about a boy in a chicken suit.

"Ray, I'm..." Fang started as he walked up to him.

"Shh! This is my favorite part!" Ray interrupted him, laughing when the boy in the cartoon whacked a crow with his stick.

Fang narrowed his blue eyes, trying to figure what the yellow squirrel found so amusing about the cartoon.

"My name is Fang, I'm a private detective and I'm investigating the case of the Origami Killer. I'd like to ask a few questions. You got arrested for the disappearance of Rutan the Echidna, one of the Origami Killer victims." Fang said.

Ray's smile slowly faded away, his expression turning into one of seriousness. His blue eyes glanced up at Fang.

"I only took him home when he got lost, the police arrived and I explained the misunderstanding." Ray said.

Fang snorted before replying in a sarcastic tone "Sure you take home a kid who happens to get lost next to your car. How about telling me something I can actually believe."

Ray closed his eyes as he slowly got up off the couch.

Fang reminded himself to be careful around the yellow squirrel, that he did suffer some mental injuries from being trapped in between dimension zones for five years during the war against Dr. Robotnik.

Ray's blue eyes glared at Fang, filled with anger and malice.

"Alright fine I'll tell you the truth. I am the Origami Killer, I get children in my car, and I drown them in rainwater, leaving an origami figure and an orchid with the body. The reason I do this is simply because I am bored, it's a creative and entertaining way of having fun." he replied in a dark tone.

He began slowly approaching Fang, his steps slow and intimidating.

"Is that good enough for you or do you want more? This interview is over." Ray hissed.

Without warning the two bodyguards from downstairs came into the room, grabbing Fang by his arms. The purple weasel clenched his teeth, shaking himself out of the guards' grip, only to get punched in the stomach. The guards grabbed a hold of Fang once again but he knocked them away, punching both of the guards. Fang was about to go after the other guard until he was grabbed from behind by the second guard, holding him so the other guard could punch him. Quickly Fang slammed his elbow into the guard holding him, making him release him just in time to dodge the other guard's punch. The guard tried kicking the purple weasel, only to get his leg grabbed and be thrown to the ground. The other guard swung his fists, Fang managing to duck under every single on before punching him in the head, knocking him out. Fang turned toward Ray, seeing him glare at him in anger.

"You'll regret this, Fang. I know people." Ray snarled.

Without a word Fang left the room, knowing that now he had to keep his guard up, waiting for when Ray decides to strike. As he walked away from the room he could hear the yellow squirrel's laughter fill the air.

Sonic looked around as he pulled his car up to an abandoned power station, wondering what kind of trial the Origami Killer had planned for him this time. He got out of his car, spotting a white butterfly painted on the end of the wall. He climbed over the wall, noticing how despite the fact of the power station being abandoned for a while that it was still running, electricity coursed down from their wires to the gray generators, reminding Sonic back when Mobius was still at war with Dr. Robotnik. He saw more paintings of butterflies, leading to power generators surrounded by a fence and spiked wires. He walked over to the fence, lifting up one of the spiked wires blocking his path. He got past the spiked wire but he let go of it too soon, clenching his teeth in pain when the spiked wire cut his hand, seeing the blood now on the wire. Sonic examined his hand, relieved that it was only a small injury. Sonic began walking around the generators, seeing if he could find any clues, finally he found a door with a white butterfly painted on it not too far from him. He walked up to the door, opening it slowly, not sure what lay ahead before walking in the door.

Sonic raised his eyebrows in surprise, seeing in front of was a hatch. Curious of what was inside, he placed his hands firmly on the hatch's wheel, turning it until he heard a loud click, and opening it up carefully. Sonic leaned his head into the hatch, his green eyes looking down the dark small tunnel that lay before him. He saw in front of him was a box of matches; he picked up the box, confused on what their purpose was. He looked at the dark tunnel again; the fear of wandering into a trap grew stronger. Sonic took a deep breath before crawling into the hatch, wanting to save his son even if he was wondering into a trap. Once he was completely in the tunnel, the hatch door closed behind him, leaving him in complete darkness. Despite this Sonic continued crawling forward into the tunnel. His hands patted the ground, trying to create a sense of direction as he crawled blindly through the darkness. All of the sudden Sonic felt a sharp object cut into his hand, he quickly withdrew his hand, pulling out and lighting one of the matches. His green eyes widen when he saw the tunnel floor was covered in broken glass, no matter where he looked every area was covered in broken glass.

Seeing there was no other way Sonic began crawling on the broken glass, squeezing his eyes shut as he felt the glass shards cut into his arms and legs, trying crawl as slow as possible to avoid getting cut up badly. He wandered through the tunnel, taking different turns, feeling blood soak his arms and legs, trying to find a way out. Sonic kept crawling until he felt his body bumped into something. He looked down and gasped in horror, quickly backing away despite the glass cutting him up badly from this. There in front of him was the body of his friend Knuckles the Echidna. His green eyes examined the lifeless body of the red echidna, seeing a puddle of blood that wasn't fresh but wasn't old either, a box of matches in his hand. Sonic closed his eyes in grief, knowing that Knuckles must had received the same letter and tried to complete the trials to save his son but unfortunately bled to death in the tunnel. Sonic turned away from the body, feeling awful for Rouge and her daughter Ruby, not wanting to imagine how this discovery would affect them. He muttered a silent goodbye to the red echidna before crawling away, continuing on with his task. Sonic crawled up to a two-way path in the tunnels, not sure which way to go until he got an idea. Quickly he pulled out a match, lit it, and watched the flame carefully as it pointed in the direction of one of the tunnels; he knew the flame was leading him toward fresh air.

He followed the flame, relieved when he saw a light come into view at the end of the tunnel. He reached the end, pulling himself out of the tunnel, falling down onto the floor below, holding his arms that continued to bleed from the many cuts the glass shards gave him. He slowly stood up, seeing the room had no exits except for a small shaft. Sonic looked at the shaft, knowing he had no choice since he couldn't go back the way he came. He lowered himself into the shaft, waiting till his entire body was inside before letting go. Sonic let out yells of pain as he slid down the shaft, his bleeding arms banging against the walls sometimes. Finally his body tumbled out of the shaft into a room full of electrical wires with electricity flowing through them. Sonic's green eyes widen when he saw on the other side painted on the wall was a white butterfly, his only way to get there was through the electrical wires. He looked over to his left, spotting a door with the word coward painted on it. He figured that was for anybody who wanted to quit the trial, but he intended not to be one of those people. He jumped down toward the electrical wires, taking a deep breath before he slowly started to crawl through them, being careful not to touch one of the wires to avoid being electrocuted.

Sonic made his way carefully through the wires, getting through each one safely until finally he lost his footing, falling on one of the electrical wires. Sonic screamed in pain, quickly jerked his body backwards, seeing the burn the electrical wire had left on his chest. He looked up at the wall; the white butterfly painting was close to him, he didn't want to give up especially with how close he was to the end of the electrical wires. He continued on, making sure he had better footing to avoid getting burned again; finally he made it out of the electrical wires. Sonic took in deep breaths, thinking about how the trial he had just finished was worse than the previous trial, fearing that the trials only get worse the further he goes. He leaned on the table in front of him, his green eyes glancing down at the small memory chip that lay on it. He picked it up, placing it in the slot on his phone, seeing the video of his son still in the well with his head looking upward in fear. Sonic clenched his teeth, he wanted to do more than anything to get Manik out of that well and comfort him to show him that he was okay. The footage cut off, revealing the hangman puzzle once again, the letters l, e, and the number two appear on the screen. Sonic closed his eyes, hating the fact there still wasn't enough letters to reveal the address where his son was being held. Placing his phone back into his pocket, he began to head for the exit of the power station.

[sonicgirl313]

Chapter 9

Amy leaned on the rails of the balcony, watching the rain fall from the sky, thinking about her encounter with Sonic earlier that day, hoping that he was alright. Though she still wanted to know what he was up to, she needed to know, she wanted to help him. She was about to go to her room until she saw Sonic's room door was open. Out of curiosity and worry she walked up to the door. Her green eyes widened and she let out a gasp when she saw Sonic lying on the floor. Amy quickly ran into the room, kneeling down next to his body, panicking about trying to figure out what happened to him. She grabbed Sonic by his arms, causing him to let out a small yell of pain. She helped him up and laid him on the bed. Amy quickly pulled off Sonic's brown jacket, placing a hand over her mouth when she saw Sonic's burned chest and bleeding arms. She ran into the bathroom, grabbing all the medical items she could find out of the cupboard. She was about to walk over to Sonic's bed until she saw the box of origami figures lying on the table. Her green eyes narrowed in confusion at this, wondering why Sonic had it in his possession. Amy pushed her thoughts to the side, knowing that tending to Sonic's wounds was more important. She sat down on his bed, laying out the medical supplies on the nightstand.

"Sonic? Sonic, can you hear me?" Amy asked in a concerned tone as she gently stroked his blue quills.

She was relieved when Sonic let a small grunt, meaning that he was still alive. She placed her hand against his forehead, shocked that he was developing a bad fever. She looked down at Sonic's face, seeing his eyes open as he stared at her, blinking his green eyes slowly.

"I'm no doctor, but I'll see what I can do" Amy said with a small smile.

She lifted her hand off of his forehead, reaching for the anti-burn ointment. She opened up the container, slipping off her white glove before rubbing her fingers in the ointment. Once she had enough on her hands, she leaned carefully over Sonic's chest, carefully spreading the ointment on his burned chest.

Sonic clenched his teeth slightly from the stinging pain, his eyes focused on the female pink hedgehog, examining how she was slowly rubbing the ointment.

Amy sat back up when she finished putting on the ointment, slipping her white glove back on. She grabbed a cotton ball and poured alcohol on it. Amy gently lifted Sonic's arm and began slowly cleaning away the blood.

Sonic watched Amy carefully, thinking how she was being so kind and delicate; her green eyes silently were comforting him.

Once she finished she threw away the cotton ball, she gently stroked Sonic's quills, leaning in close to his face, giving a comforting smile.

"Your wounds are disinfected now." Amy said.

Sonic looked up into Amy's eyes, the urge to want to look forever into her green eyes grew stronger, he wished he could reached up and stroke her pink quills like she was doing to his but he resisted, knowing it was better not to move.

Amy moved away from his face, reaching over to give him an anti-fever pill. She placed the pill in his mouth and he swallowed it. Seeing she had tended to his wounds, she grabbed the bandages, and began wrapping it around Sonic's arm, when she finished Amy lifted up Sonic's back, starting to bandage his chest as well.

"I think that's all I could do for you." Amy said as she gently laid him back down.

Sonic glanced at Amy, looking into her green eyes one last time before closing his own and passing out.

Amy laid her hand on Sonic's head, deciding she would wait until he regains consciousness. She paced around the room, sat in the chair, looked outside at the falling rain, struggled to stay awake as she waited for the blue hedgehog to awaken.

Finally after a long wait, Sonic opened his eyes, rubbing his head as he sat up. He looked over at Amy, seeing her sitting in a chair with the look of relief on her face.

"How long was I out?" Sonic asked, placing his feet on the floor.

"About three hours." Amy answered.

Sonic mentally cursed to himself, he needed to complete the third trial and he lost enough time from being unconscious. He looked over at Amy, thinking about how it was the second time that day she tended to him after getting hurt, he needed to know why.

"Why the guardian angel act? You barely even know me." Sonic said.

Amy shuffled her feet for a moment; her eyes glanced down toward the floor.

"Well I couldn't just leave you like that." she replied.

Sonic slowly got off of the bed, holding his side in pain as he walked over to his jacket, thinking about Amy's answer to him. He had to admit he was thankful for her kindness toward him.

"You said you were here because you were an insomniac?" he asked

Amy took in a deep sigh before replying "I've been going through a bit of a tough patch the last few months. It's the kind of stuff you prefer to forget. I do what I can to live with it but it's not easy."

Sonic began slipping on his jacket, wondering what could have happen Amy to cause her to have so much horrible nightmares that she isn't able to sleep in her own home.

Amy glanced up at the blue hedgehog in front of her, figuring it was the best time to start asking him questions about what he was doing at the hotel.

"Got any problems?" she asked as she got out of her chair.

Sonic turned away from her, placing his hands on the desk, looking down at the shoe box, he didn't want to tell her the truth, he wanted to complete the trials by himself and save Manik, but he knew he had to give her an answer.

"Bigger than you can imagine." he muttered quietly in reply.

Amy walked up behind Sonic; she wanted to help him, hoping that if she could help him it would avoid him ending up in a worse state than he already is.

"Maybe I can help you." she suggested.

Sonic instantly spun toward her, he couldn't let her get involved, he didn't want her to end up having to suffer through what he has to in order to save his son, he already had it set in his mind that he was going to find Manik alone with no one's help.

"No one can help me. You've already done enough, Amy." he replied.

Amy closed her eyes with a sigh, pushing back some of her pink quills, she knew she wasn't going to be able to convince him to accept her help. She turned away from the blue hedgehog, not intending to give up on helping him, figuring she just needed to think of another way.

Sonic lowered his head when Amy left the room, he didn't mean to sound harsh to her but he did what he had to do. He sat down at the table, opening up the shoe box once again, this time pulling out the green origami lizard figure. He unfolded the origami figure, seeing a message inside just like the others.

"Are you prepared to make a sacrifice to save your son?" Sonic read, noticing the address for the location of the next trial.

Back at the police headquarters Metal Sonic slammed his fist on the table in anger, just when he thought they had caught the Origami Killer, they discovered that Bark the Polar Bear had an alibi for three of the murders, meaning that he couldn't be the killer.

Shadow took in a deep sigh, they had interviewed both of the suspects but neither of them were the killer, leaving him to do more investigating in order to discover the killer's identity. His thoughts were broken when Espio came into the room, telling him that Sonic's ex-wife Sally had come to them with possible information about the Origami Case. Metal Sonic and Shadow left the room, seeing Sally sitting at the desk with her blue eyes looking around in worry. When the two walked up to the desk, Sally instantly looked up at them, her hands shaking in fear about what she was fixing to tell the cops.

"Thank goodness you came." Sally started, "I don't know if this can help in the case, but a few months ago Sonic came home late one night, it was pouring down badly. He was drenched and kept muttering something about drowning and rain. There was something in his eyes, like he was a different person. I didn't understand at first, but then the next day I saw the news about another child killed by the Origami Killer."

Sally clenched her fist, wondering if it was a good idea telling the cops about this, she wasn't sure if Sonic was connected to the Origami Killer. She looked up at Shadow with her pleading blue eyes.

"Find my son, I'm begging you!" she said, her voice shaky from fear.

Metal Sonic quickly got up from the desk, learning from Sally that Sonic goes to a therapist named Bean. When he took off Shadow quickly followed him, making sure he caused no problems, but unfortunately he had to leave behind Vector and Espio due to Metal Sonic leaving in a hurry. They arrived at the therapist's office at fifty-five after nine that night.

Bean looked up when he saw the black hedgehog and blue robot enter his office.

"I'm Metal Sonic from police headquarters and this is Shadow, an agent from GUN. We'd like to ask you questions about one of your patients Sonic the Hedgehog." the blue robot said.

Bean tapped his white-gloved fingers together before replying "I'm sorry I cannot give out such information, I am bound under an oath of secrecy, and under no circumstances may I discuss my patients."

Metal Sonic clenched his fist, without warning he grabbed the green duck by his neck.

"Metal Sonic, what the heck do you think you're doing?!" Shadow yelled.

"Come on doc there's an easy way and a hard way." the robot snarled.

"Geesh you're acting like people after a bomb had exploded in their face." Bean replied, annoyed at the fact Metal Sonic was holding him by his shirt collar.

Metal Sonic's eyes glowed in anger. He threw Bean over his desk, causing the duck to yell out in pain, though Metal Sonic wasn't through with him yet. Metal Sonic picked Bean off of the ground by the collar of his jacket and began repeatedly punching him.

Shadow clenched his fists in anger, he wasn't about to let Metal Sonic get way with how he was treating the therapist. He ran and slammed into Metal Sonic, knocking him away from the injured therapist.

Metal Sonic turned sharply toward Shadow, his red eyes glaring at the black hedgehog in front of him.

"What the heck is wrong with you, don't you want to find Manik alive?" Metal Sonic snapped.

"I do, but that doesn't give you the right to hit him!" Shadow snarled.

Metal Sonic was about to say something until he heard a cough. He turned to Bean getting up off of the floor, wiping away the blood that poured from his mouth and nostrils.

His blue eyes stared at Metal Sonic full of fear; he decided to tell them what he knew to avoid getting beaten by Metal Sonic again.

"Talk about a time-bomb, alright I'll tell you what I know." he said.

Bean explained about how Sonic told him about being haunted by visions of being trapped in water and always seeing drowning bodies, he also stated that after one of their sessions an object fell out of Sonic's jacket. Taking a deep breath Bean held out the object, revealing to Shadow and Metal Sonic that it was an origami figure.

Shadow's crimson eyes glanced at Metal Sonic; he knew what he was thinking.

With out another word Metal Sonic left the office.

Shadow stared at the origami figure for the moment, trying to believe what he just heard, but was unable to convince himself. Quickly pushing the thoughts to the side he left the office, not sure where the investigation was going to take him.

Metal Sonic got in the car, quickly flipping on the police radio.

"I want all units on Sonic the Hedgehog, I want to make it if he so much as blinks we'll know about it. Yes, Sonic the Hedgehog is the Origami Killer." Metal Sonic commanded.

The next day Fang silently entered a golf course, looking up at the sky, watching the heavy rain that continued to pour, noticing how the rain will soon be up to three inches. He tilted down his hat as he continued to walk through the golf course. He had been asked to attend in a meeting with the rich company CEO known as Mammoth Mogul. His blue eyes glanced up, seeing a brown mammoth wearing a white suit swing his golf club, sending the white golf ball flying across the field.

He turned and saw the purple weasel not standing too far from him.

"Ah, Fang the Sniper, glad you accepted my invite to discuss important matters." Mammoth Mogul said, holding his golf club like a cane.

"I'm guessing those matters are about Ray." Fang said, leaning against the wall.

"Yes, he told me you are investigating him about being the Origami Killer." the mammoth replied before hitting another golf ball.

Fang's blue eyes watched as the white ball soared through the air, rising up before descending to the ground, landing two hundred yards from them. He had never been fond of the game, he always found it boring. He found hunting more entertaining, he always loved planning out his moves, setting out his trap, and waiting for the prey to wander in clueless, unaware of what dangers lay ahead.

"I can insure you that Ray is not the Origami Killer." Mammoth Mogul said, snapping Fang out of his thoughts.

Fang crossed his arms, not wanting to believe him for a second, he knew that Ray was indeed guilty of his crime.

"Well if he's innocent then he should have nothing to fear from my investigation." he smirked.

Mammoth Mogul glared at Fang for a moment, he tapped the handle of the golf club in his hand, his blue eyes focused on the purple weasel.

"Are you sure you want to play this game, I must warn in this game you are very less likely to win." he warned.

Fang pushed up his brown hat a bit, his smirk never leaving his face, he wanted to prove that Ray was guilty of his crime and he wasn't going to let a few threats from a mammoth stop him, despite the fact he knew this mammoth had very powerful chaos powers.

Mammoth Mogul turned away from Fang, watching the rain that poured all over Mobius.

"You have sealed your fate, Fang, I suggest you better be careful where you step for now on, for it may be your last." he said in a stern tone.

Fang silently nodded before walking away, knowing that now he and Mina would have to worry about the threat a Mammoth Mogul trying to kill them. He didn't want Mina to suffer any harm; he would feel responsible if he was the cause of her death. He tilted his hat down as he continued to walk, accepting the fact he was now a player in Mammoth Mogul's game.

Sonic looked around in confusion, he had arrived at the address the origami figure told him to go to, but all he could find was an abandoned apartment. He looked down at the message again, making sure he had the right address. Seeing it was the very same location, he got out of his car, walked up to the apartment door, slowly opening the door, and walking inside. Sonic's green eyes carefully examined the walls as he walked down the hallway, noticing that they were burnt, leaving him to wonder how the apartment could have set on fire. He looked down at the floor, noticing different colored porcelain lizards lying on the floor. Out of curiosity he picked one up, shaking it around a bit, hearing nothing inside. He continued to do this with every porcelain lizard, trying to figure out what his task was in his latest trial. Finally he picked up a green porcelain lizard and when he shook it, he heard a jingling sound within it. Quickly he smashed the lizard against the ground, breaking it open, discovering there was a gold key inside. Sonic picked the key off of the ground, looking over at the door with the giant green lizard painted on it. He took in a deep breath, not sure what sick and twisted task awaited him, fearing it would be worse than his previous two trials. He unlocked the door and opened it, seeing a table and chair in the center of the room with a video tablet.

Sonic slowly entered the room, closing the door behind him, his eyes focused on the video tablet. He sat down at the table, tapping his finger against the video pad. Sonic's heart began racing and his hands shook as the video pad told him his next task in order to complete the trial was to cut of the end of one of his fingers in front of the camera within five minutes. He quickly stood up from his chair, horrified at what the Origami Killer wanted him to do. He looked down at his hand that continued to shake in fear. He glanced at the video pad, seeing the timer continue to count down. Finally he clenched his fist, knowing he had to do what was necessary to save his son. Sonic pulled a cleaver knife out of the wall that was near him, laying it on the table before sitting down. He lifted his shaking hand, wondering if he was willing to go through the pain he would by cutting off part of his finger but he knew Manik was more important. He slipped off his white glove, laying his hand on the table, sticking out his pinkie finger, figuring that finger would be the least devastating. He raised the cleaver in the air, wanting to shut his eyes but knew he couldn't or otherwise he would miss his target. He took a last few deep breaths and finally swung down the cleaver.

Sonic screamed in pain, tears streaking down his face, but unfortunately the cleaver only cut half way through his finger. He swung down again, screaming louder as he fell onto the floor, blood pouring from his pinkie finger. He used his other hand the hold the bleeding finger, trying anything to stop it from bleeding. He weakly lifted his head, hearing the video pad tell him that the next memory chip was underneath the table. Sonic screamed as loud as he could at this, hating to imagine the Origami Killer finding it amusing that he was in such a weak state. He looked underneath the table, using his uninjured hand to push aside the burnt plank, seeing the black memory chip. He held the memory chip in his teeth as he pulled the cellphone out of his pocket. He held the cellphone in his arm, taking the memory chip out of his teeth and placing it in the slot on the cellphone. The loading screen appeared, Sonic's breathing began slowing down when he saw Manik looking around with no longer fear but sadness, the rain water now up to his waist. Sonic's grip tightened around the cellphone, he was so close to saving Manik, and he only had two trials left. The video cut off, two letters that were both o appeared as well as the number eight. Sonic placed the cellphone back in his pocket, holding his bleeding hand close to his chest as he stood up, and left the room, wishing Manik knew how close he was to saving him.

[sonicgirl313]

Chapter 10

Shadow's crimson eyes glanced at the door of the abandoned apartment. One of the police scouts had tracked down Sonic's car, now they were waiting to arrest Sonic.

Vector and Espio gave confused glances at Metal Sonic who held on to his communicator tightly, waiting to give the order to move in.

Amy drove up on her motorcycle, spotting Sonic's empty car and the cops around the apartment building. She bit her lip nervously, worried that something awful had happened Sonic. Quickly she got off of her motorcycle and headed for the apartment door, attracting the attention of the cops.

Shadow narrowed his eyes as he watched the female pink hedgehog walk up to the apartment building, wondering why a hedgehog like her would be doing at an abandoned apartment.

Metal Sonic snarled in anger at this, believing Amy was going to be in trouble with Sonic around.

Amy slowly opened the door, entering the apartment. Once inside she was horrified when she saw Sonic sitting down, leaned over crying, holding his bleeding hand that had the end of his pinkie finger cut off against his chest.

"Sonic, the cops are outside! They're here to arrest you! We need to get you out of here!" Amy exclaimed.

She looked around the room, searching for an exit they can use to go unnoticed.

Metal Sonic tapped his fingers against the car dashboard impatiently; he was tired of waiting for Sonic to come out of the building. Finally he issued a command to move in on his signal.

Amy frantically looked around, seeing no other exits besides the door she came in. That was when she spotted some old wooden planks blocking a window. She quickly ran over to the planks, shoving them to the side to gain access to the window. When she got all the planks out of the way, she panicked when she saw the window was too high, she knew she needed something to help them reach the window. She turned toward the doorway, seeing a wooden trunk in front of Sonic. She went over to the wooden trunk, using all her strength to start shoving it toward the window.

Metal Sonic couldn't stand waiting any longer; he commanded the troops to move in to arrest Sonic. Shadow, Vector, and Espio along with him got out of the car, heading for the apartment door.

Amy finally got the wooden trunk against the wall. She stood up on it, sliding the window open.

"Come on this way!" Amy said.

Sonic sat up, walking as fast as he could over to Amy.

She helped Sonic onto the wooden trunk, placed her hands underneath his foot, boosting him up high enough to crawl out of the window. She pulled herself up to the window, swinging her legs over to the outside, and sliding out of the window just in time before Metal Sonic and the others burst into the apartment, looking around for any signs of Sonic. Amy landed safely on the ground, unfortunately when she did a cop guarding the door spotted them.

"Stop or I'll shoot!" he yelled.

"Sonic, hurry!" Amy yelled, quickly throwing his arm over her shoulder and walking away as fast as they could.

The cop didn't shoot at them, fearing he may accidentally hit Amy. He pulled out his communicator, alerting the troops that Sonic and Amy were exiting through the alley.

Amy walked as fast as she could, noticing how Sonic's eyes kept drooping as he struggled to keep consciousness. He had lost a lot of blood from cutting off part of his finger. They made their way to the road filled with cars because of a traffic jam.

Sonic weakly lifted his free hand, pointing out how they maybe able to get away by escaping to the subway station.

Amy's ears twitched when she heard the sounds of the police approaching. Quickly she helped Sonic into the traffic, making their way through the small openings, trying to go as straight as they could.

Shadow quickly ran into the traffic, looking around the cars, searching for the two hedgehogs, almost getting hit by a few cars that were starting to move.

Fortunately Sonic and Amy made it to the steps of the subway station, hoping that the cars would stall the cops long enough for them to get away. Once inside the subway station Sonic froze when he saw the crowd of people in front of him, he began to shake and slip out of Amy's grip.

"Sonic?! Sonic, what's wrong?! Sonic, they're coming!" Amy panicked.

She pulled Sonic back upright, tightening her grip on his arm, quickly looking around for another escape route, noticing the set of escalators that led to the subway trains. They began quickly walking through the crowd.

Sonic kept taking deep breaths as Amy continued to help him, reminding himself not to panic or the cops will end up catching them. They reached the escalators just in time for Metal Sonic and his troops entered the subway station, quickly looking around for their targeted fugitive.

Amy shoved past people as she helped Sonic down the escalator, searching for anything to escape on. She spotted a train getting ready to leave the station, unfortunately it was on the other side of tracks, but she was determined to get to the train, knowing that was Sonic's only hope of escaping. They went over to the tracks, Sonic dropped down into the tracks, falling onto the ground. When Amy jumped down on the tracks to her horror she saw a subway train headed straight for them.

"Sonic, the train's going to hit us!" Amy yelled, quickly pulling Sonic off of the ground.

She quickly helped him to the other side, jumping up off of the tracks, before grabbing Sonic's uninjured hand and pulling him up with all her might. Her heart raced faster and faster as she saw the train getting closer, Sonic still struggling to get off of the tracks. With one last pull she successfully pulled Sonic off of the tracks just before the train passed by. They both ran to the other train and got on before the doors closed, successfully escaping the police. Amy sighed in relief setting Sonic down on one of the seats, watching as he took in deep breaths, holding his hand tightly in an attempt to stop the bleeding. Now more than ever she wanted to know what Sonic was doing and she wanted to help him.

Later that day Sonic and Amy had made it back to the hotel and bandaged up Sonic's injured hand. Sonic glanced up at the TV in his room, watching how the news were talking how he was possibly the Origami Killer and considered dangerous. Sonic let out a sigh as he used the remote to turn off the TV, upset at the fact that finding his son was now more difficult. He looked up when he saw Amy come into his room, carrying a bag of groceries.

"I brought some food. I didn't know what you like so I brought some of everything. I hope that's ok." Amy said as she laid the bag on the table.

Sonic remained silent, thinking about how Amy had arrived to help him. He was thankful for what she did, if it wasn't for her he would have been sitting in jail, but he knew that the only way Amy knew where he was by following him. He didn't want to say this to her, believing that she might get upset if he confronted her about it.

Finally he said "Why are you helping me, Amy? You know nothing about me, you could have been killed."

Amy glanced back at Sonic, wondering why he was questioning her help once again but did understand partly it was because they only had met yesterday.

"I don't know, I guess it just seemed like the right thing to do at the time. You needed help, I helped you." Amy said, sorting through the bag of groceries.

Sonic stood up and walked toward Amy, he couldn't let Amy get involved; he would never overcome the guilt if he ended up causing her to get killed.

Amy could tell by the look on Sonic's face he didn't want her help. She bit her lip; she knew it was time to confront him about what he was doing.

"You're all over the news report, Sonic." Amy started, "Every cop in the country will be hunting you. They say you're the Origami Killer, is this true? Are you the killer, Sonic?"

Sonic crossed his arms looking up at the ceiling, he had to tell someone and Amy was the only one he could trust at the moment, he walked over to the wall, placing his hand against. He took a deep breath, preparing himself to tell Amy the truth.

"I sometimes have these blackouts." he began to confess, "Times where I don't know what I'm doing, as if I'm someone completely different. The only thing I remember afterwards is the water and the drowning bodies."

Amy's green eyes widen in shock at this, she knew she needed to know more.

"What were you doing at the apartment, Sonic? Why were you hurt?" she asked.

Sonic walked away from the wall, sitting down in the chair while Amy sat down on the bed.

"Completing trials left for me to save my son, if I am truly the Origami Killer then I guess my other side of me after drowning nine victims kidnapped Manik to test me to see if I truly love him enough to go to the extreme lengths to save him." he explained.

"Why can't you tell that to the cops?" Amy asked.

Sonic quickly sat up as he began to yell "Tell them what? That I may possibly have a split personality, that I drown my victims and kidnap my own son? They'll never let me go and I have to stay free to save Manik! I have no choice, I'm his only chance!"

Amy got off the bed, slowly walking over to Sonic. She wished she could place her hand on his shoulder and comfort him, but she feared that would only make him angrier.

Sonic took in a deep sigh, calming down some.

"When Manik is safe I will turn myself in, until then I need to do this. Manik will be dead on Saturday, that's in two days. I've already wasted too much time, I need to continue on with the trials." he said.

"Sonic, I..." Amy began, wanting to help him in his trials.

"No, Amy, I am truly grateful for what you've done for me, but this is something I have to do myself. There's nothing more you can do for me, if you really want to help me then leave." Sonic replied.

Amy remained silent as she began heading for the door, she couldn't wait and do nothing while Sonic was completing dangerous trials that could get him killed. She needed to help him whether he liked it or not, she just needed to start her own investigation.

Sonic closed his eyes when he heard Amy leave the room, he didn't mean to sound harsh to her but he needed to get rid of her so he could continue on. He opened his eyes, walking over to the table, opening up the shoe box, and grabbing the gray origami shark figure. He unfolded the origami figure, his green eyes widening when he read the message.

"Are you prepared to kill someone to save your son?" he read.

His eyes glanced at gun in the shoe box; he placed the message in his jacket pocket before grabbing the gun. He intended on saving his son, even if it meant being the bad guy sometimes. He loaded his gun and went out the door, headed for his assigned target.

Shadow sat in his hotel room, thinking about the Origami Killer case and the connection to Sonic the Hedgehog. He had his ARI glasses on, making the hotel room look like a quiet lobby with a piano.

"Made any progress on the case?" a female voice asked.

Shadow looked up seeing a human girl with blond hair, blue eyes, wearing a blue dress, and blue shoes. That girl was Maria. Shadow had discovered a few months back that the ARI glasses could make illusions of his memories, so whenever he always needed someone to talk to, he would activate the illusion of Maria. Sometimes he would forget that she was an illusion and think for a moment she's there until he remembers that she was killed. He looked up at the illusion of Maria, letting out a deep sigh.

"Metal Sonic is convinced that Sonic the Hedgehog is the Origami Killer." he replied.

"Do you believe this too?" she asked.

Shadow shook his head, closing his eyes for a moment.

"I've tried but Sonic's psychological behavior and home location doesn't match the killer's. I don't believe he would kidnap and drown all those kids just before kidnapping his own son. It's a hunch, but I think Sonic is innocent and I'm willing to go out of my way to prove it." he explained.

Maria smiled, happy to hear this from Shadow, she was fixing to walk away until she remembered something.

"Oh, Shadow, I must warn you, be careful with your ability, in the end it will end up killing you." she warned.

Shadow placed his hand on his forehead, thinking that Maria was referring to his chaos powers he was slowly losing control of. He's been struggling through the pain whenever it showed up, remembering that he had the choice to either allow himself to suffer or others to suffer. He always knew the obvious decision but it has been getting harder and harder for him to keep the chaos powers contained. Shadow opened his eyes, changing his surroundings to a forest with fall leaves and a camping tent. He pulled up the clues once again, seeing footage from the traffic cameras around the park. He watched the footage, the scanners picking up a Chevrolet that corresponded with the tire tracks found at the crime scene. He saw the car was reported stolen by a person named Drago Wolf, he was released when there wasn't enough evidence to prove he committed the crimes. Shadow decided he would pay Drago a visit to learn more about the Chevrolet, believing that he may have given the killer the car. He slipped off his ARI glasses, but at that moment he bent over, his teeth clenched, holding his chest in pain, his nose bleeding, he was once again losing control over his chaos powers.

He decided to do anything to distract himself until the pain went away, he flung himself on the bed, taking deep breaths and his hands gripped the bedspread underneath him tightly. Seeing it wasn't working Shadow grabbed a nearby pillow, clutching it tightly as he screamed as loud as he could into the pillow, burying it deeper into his face. He tossed away the pillow and got off of the bed, still feeling pain from keeping his chaos powers contained. He quickly grabbed a bottle of vodka, forcing it down his throat until he had to run to the bathroom to vomit. He threw up in the toilet, coughing a bit from the sudden vomiting, still upset that he felt pain in his chest and his vision was beginning to fade. Shadow flushed the toilet, running over to the sink, quickly turning on the water and washing his face, but it didn't do him good like last time. Figuring he needed more water he ran into the shower, banging his fist against the on button, causing cold water to pour out of the faucet head. Shadow slumped down in the shower as the cold water poured on his body, taking deep breaths as he slowly regained control over his chaos. He blinked his crimson eyes slowly, his surroundings for a moment transforming into the forest from ARI glasses before changing back. Shadow was confused why he could see the forest for a moment, but ignored it, figured he was seeing things because of exhaustion.

Later at ten after eleven Fang and Mina walked into a clock and typewriter repair store, hoping that to get information about the killer since he had to have come there to get the type of typewriter they were looking for. Fang walked to the back to see a blue hedgehog with a gray mustache, blue eyes, wearing a green shirt, brown vest and boots, white gloves, and glasses, fixing up a broken clock. The hedgehog's name was Charles the Hedgehog though some people called him Chuck for short. Fang let out a small cough to alert the hedgehog of his presence.

Chuck turned around, surprised to see the purple weasel in front of him.

"Ah, Fang, haven't seen you in a while, last time you were here was three years ago." Chuck said as he stood up.

"Yeah I've been busy over the years." Fang replied.

"Hmm and who's this girl with you?" Chuck asked, gesturing to Mina who just walked up.

"This is Mina she's er a friend." the purple weasel replied, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

Mina smiled as she waved at the blue hedgehog, wondering why Fang had trouble calling her a friend, thinking about over the time she has grown close toward the purple weasel and even started becoming attracted toward him. She quickly shook her head, pushing her thoughts to the side, remembering the task at hand.

"Oh nice to meet you, I'll get you something to drink. I think I have some water around here somewhere." Chuck said.

He walked out of the backroom, searching for the jug of water, asking Fang to tell the caller to call back in the afternoon when he heard the phone begin ringing.

Fang nodded and did this, when he finished he saw the blue hedgehog holding the jug of water, pouring the water into two glasses. The purple weasel picked up one of the glasses, gulping down the water, loving the refreshing feeling run down his throat. Fang placed down the glass once it was empty, asking Chuck if he could identify the kind of typewriter that was used on the letter that Mina given him.

Chuck adjusted his glasses as he examined the letter, explaining that the typewriter used was a royal five, a common old typewriter, but if anyone wanted to buy one or have one repaired they would have to come to him since he bought out the entire stock of royal five typewriters.

"Do you have a list of your clients?" Fang asked.

"Yes in fact I have a list of all the clients who own a royal five over the ten years. Wait here and I'll get it." Chuck replied.

He placed his glass of water down on the counter, walking into the backroom to search for the list.

Mina walked over to the glass display, picking up a music box, her green eyes focused on the dancing ballerina. Her ears twitched when she heard the sounds of clocks going off like crazy. She looked up to see Fang rubbing his forehead, groaning from hearing the clocks' constant chimes.

When everything fell silent, Fang began to wonder why it was taking Chuck so long to find the list. Deciding he waited long enough he walked to the backroom.

"Hey what's the hol..." Fang started, but froze when he saw Chuck lying on the ground dead, his head bleeding badly.

Fang quickly kneeled down next to the blue hedgehog's lifeless body, placing his fingers against his neck to make sure he was truly dead. He stood up when he felt no pulse, he looked over at the telephone hanging from it's line, the voice of a police officer asking what the problem was. Fang picked up the phone and hung it up, knowing the cops would soon be there.

"Hey is everything... Oh my god!" Mina started as she walked into the backroom, but gasped when she saw Chuck lying dead on the floor.

She ran over to the phone and began frantically punching in the keypad numbers.

"What are you doing?" Fang exclaimed.

"I'm calling the cops!" Mina replied.

"The killer already called the cops, I think he wants us to be his scapegoats." he said.

Mina placed the phone back down, still not sure if Fang was making the right decision. He told her to keep a watch out while he cleaned off the fingerprints of everything they touched to avoid having to go police headquarters to explain they didn't kill Chuck. Mina was about to go until she notice a notepad lying next to the blue hedgehog's lifeless body. She kneeled down and picked it up before running out the backroom to keep an eye out for the cops.

Fang pulled out a handkerchief and began cleaning away the fingerprints of everything he and Mina touched. He cleaned off the phones, the glasses, the music box, even the door; anything to make sure the cops weren't able to track them down. Once Fang finished he opened the door with his arm to make sure not to leave any fingerprints and ran out the door with Mina, leaving behind Chuck's dead body to be found by the police.

A few minutes later Mina looked confused as she watched her passing surroundings, not sure where Fang was driving to. She saw his brown gloved hands clenched tightly around the steering wheel, his blue eyes full of focus.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"I'm taking you home; this investigation is getting too dangerous for you. Chuck was killed because he knew the identity of the killer and he was only ten feet away from us, I can't let the killer get that close to you again." Fang replied in a stern tone.

"What?! No we're partners! We had a deal, remember?" Mina explained.

Fang clenched his teeth, his grip tightening around the steering wheel.

"You're going to be a good girl and do as I say!" he snarled.

Mina's green eyes widen in shock at the fact Fang snarled at her but then she narrowed them in anger.

"Stop the car. Stop the freaking car!" Mina yelled.

She grabbed the steering wheel, trying to pull the car over to the side.

Fang mentally cursed as he fought over the steering wheel with Mina, barely dodging cars as they swerved across the road. Finally he regained control, pulling the car over to the side.

"If you're not going to help me find the dirty snake that killed my son, then I will find him myself!" she yelled in anger.

Mina got out of the car, slamming the door behind her, walked for a bit, but then stopped with her arms crossed, standing in the pouring heavy rain.

Fang let out a frustrated sigh, he was only trying to prevent her from being killed, but he knew Mina desperately wanted to discover the identity of the man he killed her son. He had to admit he did like Mina's determination. With a sigh he got out of his car and walked up to Mina, he was shocked when he heard her crying,

"I miss him so much, I would give anything to hold him in my arms again." she sobbed.

Fang closed his eyes, he couldn't imagine how much pain Mina goes through everyday living without her son, he couldn't leave Mina standing there, crying in the rain. Without a word Fang took off his trench coat, slipping it over Mina's shoulders.

Her green eyes widen as Fang slowly turned around, caressing her cheek with his hands, his blue eyes staring into her green eyes.

"I'm sorry, Mina, I shouldn't have been like that." Fang said quietly.

Mina was lost for words as they walked back to the car, feeling Fang pull her closer to his body, she now knew that she had indeed fallen for the purple weasel, and together they would discover the identity of the Origami Killer.

[shadowthehedgehog2003]

hey dude i love this:) make more!!!!!!!!!!!!

[sonicgirl313]

Chapter 11

Sonic took in deep breaths as he stood in front of the door, his hand reaching into his jacket pocket to check to see he still had the gun, he was assigned to kill a skunk named Geoffrey St. John, he took in one last deep breath before knocking on the door. He shakily reached for his gun as soon as the door opened up, revealing a male black skunk with blue eyes, wearing a green scarf, red boots and one red glove. Sonic clenched his hand around the gun in his pocket as Geoffrey began yelling at him, demanding he doesn't show up at his door again. Before the skunk could close the door Sonic quickly pulled out his gun, his finger on the trigger.

Geoffrey slowly raised his arms and backed away from Sonic.

He clenched his teeth as he continued to approach the skunk, keeping his gun aimed at him. Without warning the skunk quickly punched him, knocking him to the ground. Sonic quickly got back up, but his green eyes widened when he saw Geoffrey holding a shotgun. Sonic quickly began to run, but not fast enough for him to fail the trial as Geoffrey shot at him, creating holes in walls and furniture. Sonic stumbled across a couch, narrowly missing the bullet shot at him. He frantically grabbed a hold of an electric guitar, throwing it at the skunk to slow him down

He quickly stood up, pulled the trigger, firing his gun, unfortunately he missed his target.

Geoffrey jumped backwards when Sonic fired his gun before firing his own at the blue hedgehog.

Sonic kept running narrowly dodging bullets until he came to a dead end by running into a bedroom.

Geoffrey ran in after Sonic, his gun aimed at him but when he pulled the trigger, only clicks came from the gun. His eyes widened in fear when he realized he had wasted all his ammo.

Sonic pointed his gun at Geoffrey, making the male skunk drop his shot gun and get down on his knees. Sonic's green eyes were focused as he got ready to pull the trigger.

"Look I don't know why you want to kill me, but whatever you do, don't kill me. I have two daughters, one named Andrea, the other named Katy, you'll be leaving them fatherless, just please don't shoot." Geoffrey begged.

Sonic's eyes softened, the skunk before him was a father with two daughters. He instantly became conflicted, he had to kill him to get more letters to reveal the address where his son was being held, but if he killed him he would be no better than the Origami Killer. Finally he took a deep breath.

"I'm a father too..." he started.

At that moment without warning he knocked out the male skunk with the handle of his gun.

"I'm also not a killer." Sonic muttered quietly.

He closed his eyes as he slowly walked out of the room, he given up the chance to get more letters to spare a father's life. Whether or not he fails or succeeds to find his son, Sonic was glad at least another family will continue on to live a happy life.

Amy pulled her black motorcycle up to a worn down looking house, she found out that was the home of Dr. Finitevus, the owner of the apartment complex where Sonic cut off of his finger. He use to be a scientist that wanted to harness chaos power, unfortunately an experiment gone wrong exposed his body to large amounts of chaos power, transforming him. He left his position as a scientist and sold apartments instead. Amy held her breath as she knocked on the door, not sure the person she was about to talk to was the killer. Her green eyes widen when a white echidna with black and yellow eyes, wearing a black belt, purple glasses, and gray gloves and shoes. She grinned nervously as he narrowed his eyes at her.

"Hi I heard you can get betropen without a prescription." Amy said.

"Sorry you were misinformed." he replied.

He tried to close the door, but Amy placed her hand against it, determined to get her answers.

"Wait I really need your help, I can pay." she lied, hoping the white echidna would let her in.

Dr. Finitevus raised his eyebrows in interest as he opened the door wider, allowing Amy to enter his home.

The pink female hedgehog wrapped her arms around her shoulders; she couldn't help but feel an unsettling worry about the home, not trusting the echidna.

Dr. Finitevus walked over to a table, pouring two glasses of whiskey before sitting down on the couch, and handing Amy one of the glasses of whiskey.

"So who told you about me?" he asked before taking his sip of his whiskey.

Her green eyes glanced at the echidna, her hand's grip tightened around the glass; quickly she began thinking of a lie to make up.

"A guy at a party popped some betropen in my drink, told me he got from you." Amy lied, slurring her speech to make herself sound like a drug addict.

The doctor narrowed his eyes before taking another sip of his whiskey. Amy quickly glanced at the floor, hoping that the echidna believed her lie; she needed to find out if he was connected to the Origami Killer. She looked back toward Dr. Finitevus when she decided to trick him into talking about his apartments.

"I heard you have some apartments, I'm currently looking for one, somewhere around Maple St." she said.

Amy nearly froze when he shot a glare toward her direction; she knew he was hiding something and that if she stayed there any longer something terrible would happen to her.

He slowly stood up from the couch, taking notice that Amy hadn't taken one sip of the drink he hadn't given her.

"You're not drinking?" he asked.

"Um no, I'm not really thirsty." she replied as she placed the glass of whiskey on the table next to her.

Dr. Finitevus clenched his fist, telling Amy that he would go and get the betropen for her.

Once he left the room, Amy quickly stood up, intending to search for clues and get out of there as quickly as possible, fearing what the white echidna would do to her. She silently searched through drawers finding magazines and sleeping medicine. She picked up one of the sleeping medicine pills, wondering why the doctor had so many. She remembered how angry he looked when she refused to drink. Her face turned pale when she realized that Dr. Finitevus was trying to drug her when he gave her that drink. She quickly closed the drawer, the urge to run to the door and leave the house quickly as possible grew stronger, but she stayed, determined to find a clue to help Sonic find Manik. She quietly opened the door to his bedroom, hoping to find some clues there. As Amy searched she saw in his closet he had lab coats, making her confused why he had them when he was no longer a scientist. Finally she spotted something on his nightstand. She picked up a blue card with a label for a night club called Blue Lagoon; she flipped the card over and saw the name Scourge written on the back.

"Scourge, could he be the killer?" Amy thought.

She slowly walked out of the bedroom, relieved she could finally leave, but then at that moment Dr. Finitevus hit the back of her head with a bat, knocking her to the ground. Amy groaned as her consciousness slowly slipped away.

"Nosy girl, you'll regret ever snooping around." he snarled before Amy closed her eyes, losing consciousness.

Amy groaned, her green eyes slowly blinking open, noticing the blinding light hanging above her. She tried to sit up, but quickly discovered her arms and legs were tied to a metal table that had blood on it. Quickly she began screaming, swinging her arms and legs in attempt to get free of the ropes, wanting to find out where she was.

"Ah you're finally awake, you probably think I quit being a scientist after my exposure to chaos power, on the contrary I actually continue my work here, dissecting poor unfortunate souls to learn more about chaos power's effects on a body. Here I thought I would get no work down today, yet you show up to my door. Since you're about to die I'll tell you about the apartments you were asking about, I sold the apartment to a hedgehog named Scourge, I don't know what he did with it nor do I care. Now enough talk, let's get to work." he said.

Amy green eyes widen in horror when she saw the white echidna emerge from the shadows, wearing a black lab coat, holding a drill in his hand.

He pressed his fingers against the trigger, activating the drill, lowering the spinning needle toward the pink hedgehog's stomach.

Amy screamed loudly as the drill got closer and closer to her body, finally to her relief the doorbell rang.

Dr. Finitevus moved away the drill from her body, groaning in annoyance as he laid the drill on the counter, telling Amy he would be back after he got rid of the annoyance.

As soon as he left Amy began swinging her arms and legs again, desperate to get free, knowing she would die if she didn't get free. Her foot slammed down, accidentally turning on a small saw near her feet. She leaned her head up, noticing the saw, quickly coming up with an idea. Amy carefully moved one of her feet near the saw, cutting the first rope around her ankle. Her eyes brightened with hope, believing she would be able to escape the death trap she was in. She pushed the saw slowly with her foot near the rope around her other ankle, quickly freeing her other leg, all that was left was her arms.

She left her body up and kicked the saw near her arms, cutting the rope around her wrist. She quickly untied her last wrist just as Dr. Finitevus came running down the stairs. She slid off of the bloody table, grabbing a hammer to defend herself.

Dr. Finitevus grabbed the saw off the table, grinning psychotically, swinging the saw at Amy, and trying to hit her.

Amy's grip around the hammer tightened as she held it in front of her, blocking the saw blades. She quickly began to run causing the doctor to throw the saw at her and grab a buzz-saw. Amy fell down onto a nearby table, her heart racing when she felt the echidna grab her arm, trying to force the buzz-saw to her neck. She blindly swung the hammer she grabbed, bashing it against Dr. Finitevus' head, causing it to bleed.

He yelled in pain, releasing the pink hedgehog, allowing her to grab a nearby electric-saw.

She frantically turned it on, clashing it against the doctor's saw, cutting his arms and stomach. Seeing he was injured Amy ran for the stairs, only for Dr. Finitevus to grab her by the quills, bash her head against the wall, and throw her on the metal table.

He smirked in victory when he saw Amy's body fall limp, believing he hit her head hard enough to kill her. He walked slowly over to the table, laughing when the hedgehog's body did not move.

As he flipped Amy's body on her back, he didn't see her hand tighten around the handle of the drill he had thrown at her earlier. Quickly Amy sat up, plunging the drill into his chest and turning it on, seeing the blood pour out of his chest. She pretended to be dead so Dr. Finitevus would let his guard down.

The white echidna let out a gasp, his eyes wide open, as his body fell limp onto the pink hedgehog.

Amy cringed her nose in disgust, quickly throwing the dead body off of her, knocking it down onto the floor. Amy got off the metal table, kicking the body out of anger, glad that Dr. Fintevus would never be able to take another life again. She slowly walked out of the basement, knowing her next destination; she was going to go to the Blue Lagoon to have a little chat with Scourge the Hedgehog.

Shadow took a deep sigh, time was running out for him, it would be soon a total of four inches of rainfall; he hoped he was on the right track to finding Manik. He stepped out of his car, looking around at the junkyard Drago worked at, he was about to look around in the garage till someone yelled at him. He turned around to see a white wolf wearing a blue shirt with torn sleeves, blue pants, and finally blue boots. Shadow knew that wolf had to be Drago.

"What are you doing here?" Drago snarled as he walked up to the black hedgehog.

"I'm Shadow the Hedgehog from GUN, I would like to ask about a blue Chevrolet, I don't care if you stole it or not, I just want to know who you sold it to." he started.

Drago crossed his arms, a smirk forming on his face before he replied "Can't help you, I have a really bad memory with names."

Shadow clenched his fist, he knew the wolf before him wanted a bribe to tell the information he knew.

"How about this, if we find the person who you stole the car to, you'll be looking forward to some time behind bars." Shadow threatened.

The wolf snarled, his blue eyes glaring at Shadow, his sharp teeth clenched together.

"No one threatens me, now get out of here, I don't know where the car you're looking for is." he said before walking away.

Shadow narrowed his crimson eyes; he didn't trust the white wolf. He slipped on his ARI and began searching for clues. He smirked as the scans on the ARI scans picked up many clues, revealing that Drago was indeed hiding something. He saw in the air there were orchid pollen particles, similar to particles found at the crime scene. Shadow continued searching the garage, the scanners picking up tire prints similar to the tracks he found at the crime scene, he knew the car had to be there. He saw near the tire prints were two set of footprints, one set belong to Drago, but the other Shadow wasn't able to identify. Shadow ran his ran fingers across the ground, staring at the traces of blue paint around the foot prints, wondering why it was there. Finally what caught his attention was a trail of blood leading to an acid bath. Shadow walked over to the acid bath, carefully lifting the giant piece of metal that covered it, his eyes widened when inside the acid bath was a skull. He quickly stood up, planning to report Drago for murder, but at that moment he felt a gun pressed to the back of his head, he didn't need to look to know it was Drago holding against his head.

"One of your cop buddies asking too many questions, had to soften up his mouth." Drago said with a dark grin.

He kept gun pressed against Shadow's head as he searched the black hedgehog's jacket, finding a gun and tossing it away. He nudged forward on the gun telling Shadow to start walking.

Shadow's crimson eyes quickly scanned the room for something he could throw at Drago as he was led to the back of the garage, he knew one he reaches the back that white wolf would kill him. They were approaching a giant crane, giving the black hedgehog an idea, without warning he grabbed the crane, knocking it backwards at Drago, making the wolf drop his gun. Shadow tried to tackle Drago, but ended up getting slammed into a car. Shadow clenched his teeth, his ARI glasses falling off of his head, clattering on the ground.

Drago grabbed a hold of a metal pipe, his fingers wrapped around the pipe tightly, attempting to bash the black hedgehog's head in.

Shadow rolled out the way, watching as the pipe smashed against the car windshield, shattering the glass. He quickly began climbing up the car, trying to get away from the homicidal wolf. He reached the top of the car only to fall down on his face when Drago hit him in the leg with the pipe.

Shadow clenched his teeth in pain, struggling to get on his feet, his leg bruised where the pipe had hit him. He stood up just in time before Drago got up on the roof of the car as well.

Drago began to swing the metal pipe frequently, trying to land the fatal blow on the black hedgehog's head.

Shadow's crimson eyes glanced at the gun on the ground. Quickly he shoved past Drago, tumbling to the ground due to his injured leg. Quickly he scrambled for the gun, seeing the white wolf jump off of the car. Drago tried tackling Shadow but the black hedgehog managed to grab the gun and roll out of the way of the attack. Shadow quickly stood up as Drago crashed into some oil drums, quickly loading his gun and aiming it at the white wolf.

"Enough of this crap! Now who did you sell the Chevrolet to?" Shadow snarled.

"Like I'm telling you." Drago replied in a hiss.

The black hedgehog narrowed his crimson eyes, quickly pulling the trigger, firing his gun, but made sure he aimed next at Drago's head.

The white wolf's blue eyes widen as he quickly ducked down after the bullet flew past his head.

A smirk formed on Shadow's face, pleased at the fact he succeeded, he discovered the killer gave the car to Drago, telling him he wanted in to get rid of it, when he finished Drago was suppose to give word to a hedgehog named Scourge.

"Alright, now how about we both head back to the station and tell yo..." Shadow started, but stopped when he felt pain course through his chest.

His eyes widened when he felt blood drip from his nose, his surroundings fading in and out from darkness.

A dark grin slowly formed on Drago's face as he watched the black hedgehog collapse on the ground.

"Having pain problems? Don't worry I'll fix it permanently" he said as he slammed his foot down on Shadow's head, knocking him unconscious.

Shadow opened his crimson eyes, finding himself inside his car, not sure how long he was unconscious. He looked down at wrists, seeing they were hand cuffed to the steering wheel, all of the sudden the car jerked. Shadow glanced out of the car window and saw Drago was picking up the car with a crane, leading it over to a giant grinder. Shadow remembered how he left one of his guns in the gloves compartments. Quickly he began kicking it, trying to open it up. Shadow groaned when he accidentally turned on the radio in the process, hearing the sounds of rock music blare in his ears. Finally with one last kick he opened up the glove compartment, the gun falling out. He carefully kicked the gun up onto the dash board, grabbing it in his hands, and positioning it over the cuff's chains. He pulled the trigger, breaking the cuffs, just in time because at that moment Drago dropped the car into the grinder. Shadow quickly climbed out the car as it sank into the grinder, safely jumping onto a platform to avoid falling into the grinder. He pulled out his gun, ready to shoot Drago, only to find the white wolf no longer operating the moving crane.

Without warning Drago attacked Shadow from behind knocking him to the ground. Shadow scrambled up onto his hands and knees only to have Drago kick him in the stomach, knocking him to the ground again. Drago tried to smash down on Shadow's head, but fortunately he caught the white wolf's foot, knocking it away while he blindly grabbed a broken car headlight.

Drago grabbed Shadow by the neck, lifting him off the ground.

The black hedgehog clenched his teeth as he bashed the broken headlight against Drago's head, making the white wolf drop him. Shadow quickly blasted a few chaos spears only to have Drago dodge them all.

The white wolf grabbed Shadow by his shoulder's trying to headbutt him.

Shadow quickly placed his hands on Drago's forehead, forcing away the white wolf's head before finally punching him, making the wolf release him.

Drago snarled in anger, pushing Shadow up against the crane, wanting to knock him on the ground so that the crane's giant wheels would crush him. Drago smirked as he forced Shadow closer and closer to the giant wheels, believing he will succeed in killing the black hedgehog.

Shadow's crimson eyes glanced at the wheel, knowing if he didn't think of something quick he would die. Finally he kicked Drago in the stomach, knocking him to the ground.

Shadow quickly backed away and watched as the white wolf's blue eyes widen in horror, letting out a painful scream as the tire ran over him, crushing him to death. The black hedgehog took in deep breath as he watched the giant puddle of blood form underneath the crane; he knew where he had to go. He needed to go Scourge the Hedgehog, owner of the club the Blue Lagoon.

[sonicgirl313]

Chapter 12

It was thirty after four, Fang opened up his apartment door, stepping aside to let Mina in. He slipped off her coat before taking off his own trench coat. They both walked over to the desk and sat down, thinking about Chuck getting murdered earlier.

Mina ran her fingers through her purple hair; she didn't want to tell Fang she was now attracted to him.

"So you think Ray murdered Chuck?" she asked.

Fang crossed his arms, deep in thought before replying "There's no telling, but he has the means and the messed up attitude to do so."

Mina eyes glanced down at Fang's desk, noticing the different files about the case but what caught her attention was a magazine about origami.

"Why do you have an origami magazine?" Mina asked.

"I figured the killer's name would be on the list of subscribers, only problem is that there are about five-hundred names, impossible to narrow it down." Fang replied.

Mina pushed herself off of the desk; she was amazed with how long Fang had been searching for the Origami Killer, not having to be able to track down the killer with any clues. Mina looked down at her clothes, seeing how they were damp from the rain.

"I'm kind of hungry and my clothes are wet. Can you fix me something while I take a shower?" she asked.

"Um sure, I'm no chef, but I think I can fix up some scrambled eggs." Fang said.

Mina nodded before leaving the room to get in the shower.

Fang walked into the kitchen, turned on the stove, pulling out some eggs and a skillet. He cracked the eggs open, watching as they began to sizzle when they plopped onto the skillet. He stirred around the yolk, wondering how much longer Mina would be in the shower. After a while the eggs were finished, Fang shut off the stove and dumped the eggs into a plate. As he set the plate and silverware on the table, his ears twitched when he heard the sound of water being turned off. He looked toward the kitchen entryway, his face turning red when he saw Mina walk in, her purple hair damp and she was wearing a red robe that clung to her figure.

"I took the liberty of borrowing your bathrobe." she said as she sat down at the table, crossing and exposing her slender legs.

"Looks better on you." he muttered quietly.

Mina picked up a fork, nibbling on the eggs, nodding her head when she found them delicious. Just then Fang narrowed his blue eyes when he saw Mina placed a notepad on the table.

"What's that?" he asked.

"It's the list of Chuck's clients who bought or had repaired a royal five typewriter." Mina explained, "I figured it could help us track down the killer."

Fang sighed, rubbing his fingers against the temple of his forehead.

"Mina, there's hundreds of names on the list, it would be impossible to narrow it down." he replied.

At that moment the female mongoose's green eyes lit up, she had come up with an idea. She quickly got out of her chair, swiping the notepad off of the table.

"Unless we cross-check it with the list of subscribers to the origami magazine, if the killer owns a royal five typewriter and a subscription to the origami magazine, then his name should be on both lists!" Mina exclaimed.

"Wait, Mina!" Fang started, but it was too late, Mina had already run out of the kitchen.

He groaned as he walked into the living room, seeing Mina sitting as his desk, looking up the names on each list. He tilted his hat down at the fact Mina didn't bother to change out of the bathrobe. He walked over to the desk, deciding to help Mina look up the names. They flipped through pages, comparing names, unable to find a match.

Mina let out a sigh, her finger scrolling down the lists of names on the magazine, not able to find a name that was on Chuck's list of clients as well. Finally after a while of looking up names, Mina came upon a name that was on both the list of subscribers to the magazine and Chuck's lists of clients. She showed the name to Fang, grinning in happiness that they had found a lead.

Fang narrowed his blue eyes at the name, it was familiar to him.

Later that day at thirteen after three, Mina who was dressed again and Fang arrived at a cemetery. They looked around at the gloomy cemetery causing Mina to wonder why the name they found Nic was the name of a female weasel that died when she was ten. They began searching for Nic's gravestone.

Fang slightly annoyed they had to search in the pouring heavy rain, not sure if the name of a dead girl was a good enough lead. His ears twitched when he heard Mina calling for him, he walked over to her and saw she had found Nic the Weasel's grave. Fang carefully looked the grave over, noticing how not only there were fresh flowers, but also a small origami figure. Both Fang and Mina knew that had to mean that the Origami Figure knew Nic the Weasel.

"Poor girl, I knew her well." said a red and black armadillo named Mighty as he walked up to the two.

"You knew Nic the Weasel?" Fang asked in a shock tone.

Mighty nodded his head as his blue eyes glanced down at the gravestone.

"It was a rainy day much like this one..." he started.

"Ah get out of here! Wait till your lousy mother gets home to take care of you worthless kids!" the voice of a drunken male weasel yelled.

Two young purple weasels, one male and one female quickly ran out of a worn down trailer home, horrified looks on their faces. The girl named Nic had blue eyes and wore a blue shirt, white gloves, a brown hat, blue boots, a brown belt, a blue jacket, and had her hair pulled into a long braid. The boy also had blue eyes and wore a brown hat, brown gloves, a brown belt, brown boots, and a brown coat.

"He's drunk again. What are we going to do Nic? We can't play inside." the male weasel groaned.

Nic smirked at her twin brother, placing both of her hands on her hips. She never minded playing in the rain, she found the drops of rain hitting her body better than the brutal slaps and hits she gets from her father whenever he's drunk.

"Well at least we won't get hit; a little rain can't hurt anybody. Come on now, let's go play." she said.

Quickly the two ran into a nearby construction site, they never could understand why their parents chose to live so close to one, but they had to admit it made a great playground when none of the workers were around.

The male weasel stopped running and watched his twin sister kneeled on the ground, holding out her hands so she could give him a boost over the stack of bricks. He placed his foot in her hands, pulling himself up onto the bricks while she pushed up on his foot. Once he reached the top he grabbed Nic's hand, pulling her up onto the bricks.

She ran past him jumping down on a nearby platform weaving her way through the metal bars that stuck out of the platform.

Her brother followed in pursuit, carefully weaving his way through the bars, not wanting to go too fast and hit his face. Once he made to the clearing his slid down a wooden plank, laughing in joy as he slid to the ground.

Nic looked back at her brother, waving her arms and telling him to keep up before crawling through a cement pipe.

Her brother careful crawled into the cement pipe after her, being careful not to hit his head on the top of the pipe. Once he got out of the pipe he saw Nic run up to one of the building structures, jumping up on the higher floor, she gave him a taunting smirk before running off.

The male weasel ran up to the building and jumped up on the higher floor just like his sister, wishing she would slow down so he could catch up. He got off the floor, quickly running in the direction he saw his sister take off. He ran up a set of stairs, his blue eyes widening when he saw Nic crossing a gap by clinging on to a metal bar, swinging her arms as she inched her way across the gap. Her brother gulped as he glanced down at the ground below, knowing one mistake may be his last if he follows her. Hesitant at first he grabbed a hold of the metal bar and pulled himself off the ground. He breathed nervously as he inched his way across the gap, his legs dangling in the air, hoping he won't lose his grip on the metal bar. To his relief both he and his sister were able to make it over the gap, though he didn't get to say anything because at the moment Nic ran over to a pipe tilted to the ground.

Without a word her white gloved hands gripped the edge of the pipe as she slipped her body inside. She let go of the pipe, yelling in joy as she slid down to the ground.

Her brother had to admit it looked like fun, wondering what would happen if an adult ended up sliding down a pipe. He lowered his body into the pipe as he slid down to the ground, landing in a dirt pile.

They both quickly ran over to another set of construction, climbing up the metal bars before them. When they reached the top, Nic found another gap with a plank across it.

She held out her arms, placing one foot in front of the other as she slowly crossed the plank.

Her brother glanced at the ground nervously as he began walking on the plank, felling safer then when he did with the previous gap. He quickly ran off of the plank as soon as he was on the other side, chasing after his sister who jumped off on nearby by ground. As he went after her he looked up to the sky, noticing how the rain was beginning to pour harder. He finally caught up with her at a dig site where there was a lot of construction machines shut down.

Nic gave her brother high-five, grinning in happiness that they were having fun instead of taking their father's brutal beatings.

"Hey let's play hide and seek, I'll hide and you seek." she suggested.

"Okay." her brother replied.

He leaned up against a cement truck, burying his face in his arms and began counting to twenty. A sly smirk formed on Nic's face as she ran off to find a hiding place.

She ran behind the cement truck trying to find the perfect spot. Before Nic's brother could reach the number twenty, his ears twitched when he heard the sound of her scream and calling for help after that.

He ran behind the cement truck, his blue eyes widening in horror when he saw his sister clinging on the edge of a broken cement pipe in the ground that was filling up with rain water.

Nic spat the water out of her face as she tried to pull herself out of the pipe but to no avail she couldn't. She regretted running too fast to find a hiding place; running is what made her slip and fall into the pipe.

"Nic!" her brother screamed as he quickly ran over to her and began pulling on her hand.

He pulled and pulled, but he wasn't able to get her out of the pipe filling with rainwater.

"My foot's stuck on something down here, I can't get out!" Nic coughed as water rushed in her face.

Her brother stood up, glancing down at his sister with worried eyes, watching as she drowned in rainwater.

"Nic, I'll go find help!" her brother said.

"Hurry the water's rising quickly!" she pleaded, her hands still clinging to the edge of the pipe, trying to increase her chances of surviving the situation she was in.

"Unfortunately that boy was never able to find help; he held his sister's hand as she drowned in that pipe full of rainwater. Due to the fact a child died on the parent's watch, the boy was taken away and adopted by another family. I don't know what happened after that, it was a sad time then." Mighty finished before walking away.

Mina's face had turned pale from the story she had just heard, she couldn't believe that a girl ended up drowning in a pipe full of rainwater while holding her brother hand.

Fang's gloved hands were clenched tightly into fists; he didn't like hearing the story either.

Mina glanced at Fang's blues eyes; she could see not only anger in his eyes, but sadness as well.

"Fang, do you think the Origami Killer knew Nic and that's why they're using her name?" Mina asked.

The purple weasel turned toward the female mongoose next to her. He didn't say a word as he stared at her with a stern look on his face.

Finally he said "It could be, but we don't know quite yet."

Mina nodded her head in understanding, knowing that the possibility of the killer just using the name is there as well. Mina and Fang began heading back to the car till all of the sudden Fang pulled Mina gently to the ground, telling her to be quiet. She was confused by this until she saw Mammoth Mogul enter the grave, his cane swinging casually as he made his way past the grave stones. Both of their eyes widened in shock when they saw Mammoth Mogul stop in front of Nic the Weasel's grave, placing fresh flowers in front of her gravestone.

Fang narrowed his eyes and clenched his teeth; he now knew Mammoth Mogul was the one leaving behind the flowers, now he just needed to find out the reason why.

Six hours later that day, Amy walked into the Blue Lagoon Club, wearing a red blouse, black skirt, and black shoes. Her hands tightened around her black handbag as her green eyes looked around for the hedgehog named Scourge. The rainfall had reached a total of at least four inches; she knew she was running out of time. She examined her surroundings, slightly annoyed by the bright-colored lights constantly flashing, the crowds of people dancing, and the loud techno music. Amy shoved her way through the crowd, wondering how she would find Scourge when so much was going on. At that moment she spotted a security guard, she walked over to him, hoping he would know where Scourge is.

"I'm looking for Scourge the Hedgehog, do you know where he is?" she asked.

"He's at his private table." the guard answered, gesturing his hand behind him.

Amy leaned to the side so she can see past the guard. On a red couch she saw a green hedgehog with two scars on his chest and blue eyes, wearing a black jacket with flame designs on the sleeves, red sunglasses, white gloves, and green shoes with black on them. Amy slightly cringed at the sight of the green hedgehog; she already could tell what kind guy he was.

"Does he know you?" the security guard asks.

Amy turned back toward the security guard and answered "Not yet, but I have to talk to him."

"Scourge asked not to be disturbed so you'll be unable to speak with him." the security guard replied.

Amy let out an annoyed sigh of defeat, quickly walking away from him, knowing that she needed to figure a way in to talk to Scourge. Her eyes glanced at the green hedgehog, noticing he was staring at a red female fox with blue eyes, wearing black tank top, gloves, skirt, boots, and a yellow bow. The female fox was dancing seductively on top of a platform, trying to get guys' attentions. Amy wanted to gag at the sight of Scourge running his tongue over his teeth; his blue eyes focused on the female fox's rapidly swinging hips with her arms raised high in the air and her tail swishing around. Amy was about to turn away, disgusted at the perverted hedgehog until she saw him call over his security guard, telling him something. The security guard went over to the fox, whispering into her ear.

The female fox smirked as she got off of the platform, going over to Scourge's private table. She sat down next to Scourge, leaning against his body as he laid his arm around her shoulder.

"So Scourge likes his women sexy, that is sexy in a dumb way." Amy thought to herself.

She glanced at the door to the women's restroom, knowing what she had to do. She entered the restroom, relieved to see no was in there. She placed her handbag next to the sink and leaned toward the mirror.

"Time to play the sexy girl." Amy muttered to herself.

She ran her fingers through her quills, ruffling them to make them look fluffier. She shook her head and pushed her bangs to the side a bit, finishing up her hair. She opened up her handbag, pulling out some eyeliner; she carefully applied them to her eyelashes, making the look longer and thicker. When she finished that she pulled out red lipstick next, slowly applying it to her lips. She smacked her lips together a few times; examining odd she looked with bright rosy lips since usual she never wore makeup. Finally she wanted to make sure she had the one important thing inside her handbag, she reached in, pulling out a black handgun. She was relieved she had brought it for in case Scourge didn't cooperate with her. She quickly put everything back in her handbag before doing the final touches by unbuttoning the top of her red blouse, exposing some of her cleavage, and ripping off the bottom of her skirt, transforming it into a mini-skirt. Amy groaned at the sight of herself in the mirror, she didn't like having to make herself look like the sexy girl, but she needed to in order to get any chance to talk to Scourge. She took a deep sigh, leaving the bathroom and walking over to the platform where the female fox was dancing.

Amy placed her handbag on the ground, stepped up on the platform, and took a deep breath before faking a seductive smile on her face. She began bending her knees, slowly shaking her hips, placing her hands behind her head. As she continued her seductive dance, Scourge turned his head toward her.

He lowered his red sunglasses below his blue eyes, a devious smirk forming on his face. He sent away the female fox sitting next to him, watching Amy's hands travel down to her hips as she continued to dance,. He couldn't take it anymore; he wanted to talk to her. He called over his security guard and told him to get Amy. The guard nodded before walking over to the platform Amy was dancing on.

"Hey you!" the guard yelled, gaining Amy's attention.

Amy stopped dancing and got off the platform, picking up her handbag, resisting the urge to grin in victory at the fact her plan worked. She walked up to the guard, pretending to be clueless about why he called her over there.

"Looks like this is your lucky day, the boss wants to see you." the guard stated.

Amy nodded before walking past him, headed for Scourge. She wanted to gag when she saw Scourge's eyes examined her body from top to bottom, mainly focusing on her chest, she mentally reminded herself to keep up the act until she got the information she wanted from Scourge.

"Hey toots, glad you accepted my invite. So what's your name? I think I would recognized you if I had seen you before." Scourge said as Amy sat down on the couch next to him, wrapping his arm around her shoulders.

"Amy Rose." she replied.

"Ah Amy, that is totally a name for a hottie." Scourge smirked, hugging Amy's body closer to his chest.

Amy clenched her teeth, she wanted more than anything to slap that smirk off of Scourge's face and leave the club right at that moment, but she knew she needed the information or she would never be able to help Sonic find his son, she believed she had gone too far to turn back.

"Is there any where we continue this discussion in private?" she asked in the best seductive tone she could fake.

A sly grin formed on Scourge's face, his hand moving lower down on Amy's back.

"I like the way you think babe, come on I'll show you to my office." he said.

He got off of the couch, starting to walk through the crowd. Amy quietly followed him, sticking her tongue out in disgust at the fact Scourge was wanting to sleep with her. They walked up a set of stairs, leading to a door being watched by the security guard. Scourge opened up the door, revealing a hallway leading to his office door. Once he was inside his office, Amy stopped in the hallway, opening up her handbag to make sure she still had her gun.

"It's okay Amy, just go in there, make him talk to the gun and leave. Nothing bad will happen." she silently reassured herself.

She placed the gun back into the handbag before walking into the office, watching as the green hedgehog closed the door and turned on music.

"I'll take that, you won't be needing this." Scourge said as he swiped the handbag out of Amy's hands.

Her face turned pale as she watched Scourge toss the handbag into a chair before leading her over to the couch, she had lost her only insurance to make sure Scourge gave her information.

The green hedgehog sat down on a white couch, having Amy stand in front of him.

"Okay babe get the show started." Scourge said as he rubbed his white gloved hands together.

Amy bit her lip nervously. She didn't want to sleep with Scourge; she wanted to reach her gun. She slowly began backing toward the chair where her handbag laid.

"Um look I think you're mistaken, I'm not really that kind of girl, so I'll just go and..." she started.

Her eyes widen and she stopped talking when she saw Scourge pulled out a gun, aiming it toward her.

"No one tells me no babe, now do as I say unless you want a bullet in that pretty head of yours." Scourge threatened, his finger placed firmly on the trigger of the gun.

Amy's breathing began to increase speed; her mind quickly tried creating ideas to get herself out of her current situation. At that moment her green eyes focused on the lamp next to Scourge, an idea began forming in her mind. She walked over to Scourge, a seductive look on her face, her fingers slowly running down his scarred chest, but as she did this Scourge didn't see her free hand slowly reach for the lamp. She leaned closer to his face, her eyes slowly closing and her hand tightly grasping the lamp.

"Ah babe you make me want to..." Scourge started, but he was interrupted by Amy quickly slamming the lamp into his head, knocking him unconscious.

She quickly got off of his lap, dusting her skirt off in disgust, relieved she was able to save her dignity. Amy ran over to the chair where her handbag was, she opened it up, pulling out her gun, feeling safer holding it in her hands. Deciding to take care of Scourge, Amy dragged his body off the couch, laying it in the chair. She grabbed the duct tape, binding Scourge's arms to the chair.

"Okay act two, time to make lover boy sing." Amy said to herself.

She walked up to Scourge, slapping her hand across his face. She didn't only do this to wake him up, but also to take out her anger on him. When he didn't wake up she slapped harder, earning a yell of pain from the green hedgehog.

He groaned, slowly opened his blue eyes to see Amy standing in front of him. He clenched his teeth in anger, jerking his arms in an attempt to get free.

"If you call out I'll kill you, got it?" Amy said, lifting up her gun to show she was armed.

Scourge narrowed his eyes in anger, his fists were clenched tightly, but he did as she said.

"Alright, what do you want?" he snarled.

"You rented an apartment on Maple Street, I want to know why." Amy replied, placing one of her hands on her hips.

"I don't know what you're talking about toots." Scourge said, a smirk formed on his face.

Amy lifted up her gun, pressing it against Scourge's forehead, her eyes focused on the green hedgehog, silently threatening to kill him unless he told her the information he knew. To her shock the smirk never left his face.

"You don't have the guts doll but you're going to know guts when I'm through with you." Scourge smirked.

Amy's grip around her gun tightened, without warning she slammed the gun against Scourge's head. A smirk formed on her face when she saw his own disappeared.

"You crazy hedgehog, I'm going to kill you!" he snarled through clenched teeth.

Amy ears twitched when she heard the sound of knocking at Scourge's door, it was one of his security guards asking if he was okay. Amy pressed the gun against Scourge's neck, making sure he doesn't say anything. She looked toward the door and began breathing hard, making loud sounds of moaning and squeals tricking guard into thinking Scourge was busy. The guard's eyes widen when he heard this sounds coming from the other side of the closed door and quickly walked away. Seeing the door wasn't open Amy turned toward Scourge, seeing his blue eyes wide in shock.

"Alright, Scourge, if you don't want to suffer major pain I suggest to tell me what you know." she said.

At that moment Amy lifted her foot and slammed the heel of her shoe into Scourge's crotch. The green hedgehog yelled in pain as Amy pressed her heel down harder, causing more pain.

"I never set foot in that apartment; I gave the keys to some guy. He had money!" Scourge yelled in pain.

"What was that guy's name?" Amy asked, pressing her heel down even harder.

Scourge squeezed his eyes shut, his head thrown back, his throat starting to become sore from how much he was yelling.

"Nic! His name is Nic, the only thing I know about him is that his mother is in a hospital!" Scourge yelled.

Amy lifted her foot away, placing it back on the ground, pleased with the fact she had gotten more clues on the identity of the Origami Killer. She placed her gun back in her handbag and began to head for the door.

"Thanks for the romantic moment, but I got to dash." she said in a sarcastic tone.

Scourge snarled in anger as soon as Amy left the office, he would make sure she paid when he runs into her again.

Amy made her way through the crowd, trying to make sure she didn't bump into anyone on the way out. She was bound determined to prove Sonic wasn't the Origami Killer.

[sonicgirl313]

Chapter 13

Shadow stared up at the neon lit sign of the club known as Blue Lagoon; he knew that was the club Scourge the Hedgehog owned. He pulled on the collar of his jacket, hoping to get more information so he would be able to find Manik alive. He walked inside the club, annoyed at the loud music blaring in his ears. As he walked up to the security guard while Amy who was heading for the exit walked past him. Shadow stopped in his tracks, his crimson eyes widening when he recognized those pink quills. But when he turned around Amy was already gone. He decided it was only his mind playing tricks on him before he walked up to the guard.

"I'm here to see Scourge." Shadow said.

The guard narrowed his eyes before replying "There ain't no Scourge here. Get lost."

Shadow reached into the pocket of his black jacket, pulling out his badge, showing he was a GUN agent.

"Are you absolutely sure?" Shadow said as he held up the badge in front of the security guard's face.

The security swallowed a lump in his throat as he looked back and forth nervously, he knew if he didn't tell Shadow the truth he would be in deep trouble. Finally he caved in, telling Shadow that Scourge was in his office.

Meanwhile Scourge had finally got free of the bonds Amy left him in. He snarled and grumbled to himself, rubbing his wrists, and taking a seat at his desk. He turned to grab a bottle of beer, but when he turned around he got startled when saw a figure wearing a black trench coach, gloves, boots, hat, and a grey scarf hiding most of his face, that figure was the Origami Killer. Scourge let out a sigh, lowering his tensed shoulders.

"Oh it's you, I didn't hear you come in." Scourge said.

The Origami Killer said nothing as he walked across the room, standing near the fish tank.

"A crazy chick came in here, asking questions about the apartment on Maple Street. I don't know what you're doing down there and I don't wanna know but whatever that crap is it's beginning to draw attention." Scourge said as he sat down at his desk.

The Origami Killer crossed him arms, silently nodding in understanding.

The green hedgehog took a gulp of his beer before facing the killer and continuing "Look man, I know you kept me out of the Zone Jail and all, but that freaking chick nearly killed me! I would say my debt to you is paid."

The Origami Killer glared at him in anger, without warning he pulled out a gun, aiming for his forehead.

Scourge's blue eyes widen in fear, quickly placing his beer bottle on the table, and placing his hands in the air. Sweat began to drip down his head, getting more nervous as he stared at the gun aimed at his forehead.

"Wait you don't need to kill me! I can still be of use! Please don't ki..." Scourge began to beg.

The Origami Killer pulled the trigger, firing the gun, watching as Scourge's body fell limp in the chair and blood trail down his forehead where the bullet hit. The Origami Killer walked toward the body of the dead hedgehog, a dark smirk forming on his face, he wasn't going to let Scourge live when he knew his identity.

Shadow finally reached Scourge's office door, he knocked on it a few times, waiting for a response. Seeing no one was answering, Shadow opened up the door, noticing Scourge in the chair facing away from him. He walked over to the chair, turning it around to make Scourge face him. He quickly withdrew his hand when he saw the bullet wound in Scourge's forehead. Shadow silently snarled in anger, Scourge could have been helpful to his case. He pulled out the ARI glasses and put on the black glove, hoping there were some clues left behind. All of the sudden Shadow yelled when the Origami Killer attacked him from behind, causing him to drop the ARI glasses and hit the ground. He quickly got up, seeing the Origami Killer begin walking toward the door. He ran toward the killer, grabbing him by the shoulders and pulling him into the wall. Shadow quickly threw punches at the killer, only managing to punch him in the face.

The Origami Killer snarled in anger, he grabbed Shadow by the arm and threw him on the desk. He smashed the black hedgehog against the desk repeatedly trying to kill him, thinking fast Shadow kicked him in the stomach, knocking him against the wall.

Unfortunately that allowed the Origami Killer to grab a samurai sword that was hanging on the wall.

Shadow quickly rolled out of the way as the Origami Killer swung down the blade. Shadow kept dodging each of the swings from the samurai sword, knowing he'll be killed if he let that sharp blade cut him. He quickly got off of the desk.

The Origami Killer tried to stab Shadow but ended up stabbing a punching bag instead due Shadow dodging. The Origami Killer pulled the sword out of the punching bag, running after the black hedgehog and swinging the sword rapidly.

Shadow yelled in pain as the sword managed to hit his stomach twice, creating two large bleeding gashes. He fell backwards into a chair, trying to stay focused on the fight. Luckily he managed to avoid the sword when the killer tried to stab him again, causing it to get stuck in the chair.

Tired of using the sword the Origami Killer kicked Shadow to the ground and threw the chair out him when he tried to get up.

The black hedgehog slammed against the fish tank, instantly feeling both water and broken glass run down his back upon impact. He groaned as he slowly tried to get up from the glass, water, and fish filled floor.

As the Origami Killer began leaving the office Shadow managed to grab onto his trench coat pocket.

The killer snarled as he kicked Shadow to the floor once again, but failing to notice his pocket got ripped in the process, dropping two gas receipts. With out another word, the Origami Killer walked out of the office, closing the door behind him.

Shadow clenched his teeth as he got off of the floor, not only from the pain he was in but because he didn't want to let the Origami Killer get away. He threw open the door, ran down the hall, and swung open the door at the end of the hallway. His crimson eyes frantically looked around for the Origami Killer; unfortunately he wasn't able to find him. He slammed his fist down on the stair's railing, angry at the fact that was the closet he had ever gotten to the Origami Killer but still ended up losing him. He turned toward the security guard, grabbed him by his shirt collar, glaring at him with his crimson eyes full of rage.

"I'm only going to ask this once. Did Scourge know the guy that went into his office?" Shadow snarled.

"Nic, he said his name was Nic!" the guard replied in a panicking tone.

Shadow let go of the security guard, thinking about the name Nic. He knew none of the suspects had that name, but neither did anyone that was currently living in Mobius. Without another word he went back into the office, figuring he could at least look for clues so his visit wouldn't be a complete loss. He carefully stepped over the broken glass on the floor, being careful not to cut his hand as he picked up his ARI glasses. He placed them over his eyes, activating the scanners, and revealing many clues. He discovered the Origami Killer used a caliber 42 gun to kill Scourge and that the gas receipts came from the same gas station. Shadow was angry at the fact he wasn't able to find anymore clues, he had no idea how only a gun and gas receipts would help him find Manik. The only other fingerprints he found belonged to Scourge. He was about to leave until he noticed lipstick on the floor, he picked it up, scanning the fingerprints.

"Amy Rose? What was a journalist doing here?" Shadow thought.

Back at the hotel, Sonic sat in the floor, his head leaned against the wall, and his hand resting on his knee.

Amy, who was changed back into her red shirt, blue jeans, brown jacket, and red boots, carefully entered the room. Her face softened when she saw Sonic's green eyes full of confusion; silently she sat down in the floor next to Sonic, hugging her knees to her chest.

"Sonic, what's wrong?" she asked out of concern.

The blue hedgehog let out a deep sigh, leaning his head downward, not wanting to make eye contact with the pink hedgehog next to him.

"I was supposed to kill a man, but I couldn't do it. I know it was the right thing to do, but now I may lose my son." he muttered quietly.

Amy let out a small gasp; she couldn't believe the Origami Killer actually tried to make Sonic kill someone. She gently laid one of her hands on his shoulder and the other placed on his cheek, tilting his head to face her. They stared into each other's green eyes, Amy nearly lost her breath when she realized over the time she knew Sonic she actually found him attractive. Quickly she pushed the thoughts out of her mind.

"Sonic, you shouldn't blame yourself for not killing someone, you did the right thing." she replied, "I believe you're not the Origami Killer, I'm getting the evidence to prove you're innocent. I know you're innocent because, well because..."

Amy never finished her sentence, instead she begin closing her eyes, leaning close to the blue hedgehog.

Sonic knew instantly what she was trying to do, she was going to kiss him. At first he though about turning away his head, but he began to think about how Amy was beautiful and he loved her green eyes, he also liked how she was kind to him when he was hurt and is actually willing to help him find Manik. Sonic made up his mind; he closed his eyes, pressing his lips against Amy's. When they pulled back Sonic's thoughts about his son, the police, the Origami Killer disappeared; the thought on his mind was Amy. He pulled her into another kiss, savoring the flavor of her cherry lip gloss

Amy slowly placed her hands on the side of his face, keeping her kissing in a slow rhythm.

Without even looking Sonic trailed his hands down to the zipper of Amy's jacket, quickly unzipping it and taking off of her. Amy reached for Sonic's shoulders, slowly sliding off his brown jacket, letting drop to the floor before wrapping her arms around his neck.

Amy couldn't help but let out a moan of pleasure as she felt the blue hedgehog run his fingers across her arm, gently kissing her neck.

Sonic carefully and slowly traced his fingers down the side of the pink hedgehog's body, stopping at the bottom of her shirt. He pressed lips against Amy's again, loving the feeling of her fingers running through his blue quills. Time seemed to freeze for him at the moment, he had no worries, and he felt as if he was in paradise. He slowly pulled off Amy's red shirt off her body, pulling her body closer to him and placing his hands on her bare back. They lay down in the floor, savoring their long and passionate kisses, it didn't take long for them to continue their special dance, and nothing mattered at the moment to them. There was only love in their little paradise.

Sonic slowly opened his eyes, seeing his body pressed against Amy who was wearing a red shirt and black shorts. He glanced over at the clock on his night stand, seeing it was four in the morning. He silently groaned, realizing that he should have reminded himself that he had to save his son instead of getting caught up in the heat and sleeping with Amy. He did like their special moment they had, enjoying each other's presence, but he knew saving his son was more important than being with someone at the moment. Sonic quietly moved his arms away from Amy's sleeping body, not wanting to wake her, he remembered she got dressed and went to sleep on the bed after their little event. He glanced back at Amy, admiring her sleeping form. He planned to make it up to her after he found Manik alive. He sat up, pulling back on his red shoes, and looked over at the table, knowing it was time to open the final origami figure. He walked over to the box, picked up a brown rat origami figure, and unfolded the figure, seeing the message inside.

"The last letters." Sonic read quietly.

He was confused when he saw this time the message isn't asking him what he is prepared for. Deciding to ignore this, he went over to grab his jacket which was lying underneath Amy's jacket on a chair. Sonic picked up Amy's jacket causing a camera and notepad to fall out the pocket, he stared out these objects in confusion as he kneeled to the floor. He picked up the camera and turned it on, his eyes widening when he saw pictures of the abandoned power plant where he completed the butterfly trial and pictures of him when he passed out due to his injuries. He knew Amy had followed him to the apartment where the lizard trial was but he had no idea Amy was following him before that. He quickly put the camera down and flipped open the notepad, his hand began to clench into fists out of anger, the notepad had writings about him completing the trials, his blackouts, and how he thinks he could possible be the Origami Killer.

"I should have known, all this time and I had no idea." Sonic snarled, loud enough to wake Amy up.

The pink hedgehog sat up in the bed, worried when she saw the look of pure rage on Sonic's face.

"Sonic, what's wrong?" she asked.

Sonic got off of the floor, his hand clenched so tightly around the notepad that he was actually crinkling it a bit. He glared at Amy, his mind full of rage.

"You're a pretty good nurse for a freaking journalist!" Sonic yelled, throwing the notepad at her.

Amy shielded her face, feeling the sting where the notepad had hit her arm, guilt began to fill her heart. She knew she had hurt the blue hedgehog by hiding that secret from him. She got off of the bed, walking over to Sonic.

"Please let me explain." she begged.

She reached out to touch his shoulder, but he jerked away from her, his fists clenched tightly.

"You lied to me, Amy! You were only doing all this just for a stupid book deal! Heck you problem didn't even care about what we ended up doing! You used me just for your job!" Sonic snarled.

Amy silently lowered her hand, watching as Sonic turned his back toward her.

"In the beginning yes, I knew you were the father of the Origami Killer's latest victim when you told me your name, but then I saw what you were going through to save your son. It pained me to see you in your state after you left the power plant, but it pained me even more when I saw you in that apartment bleeding and your finger cut off. That's why I told my boss I had now rejected the book deal." Amy explained.

Sonic's eyes widen at this, he could tell by the tone of Amy's voice that she wasn't lying.

Seeing he didn't say anything Amy began to slowly walk toward him.

"I should turned down the book deal after I had the first problem." she continued, "I went to ask a Taxidermist questions about the Origami Killer case, I ended up discovering he killed woman and had their corpses stuffed like an animal trophy. I was terrified when he came after me with that knife, I almost died, but I managed to run out of the garage and escape on my motorcycle. Oh god it was awful yet I still wanted to do the book deal."

She quickly wiped away the tears streaking down her face. That memory was something she never wanted to relive soon.

"You had finally showed me how stupid I was being. I wanted to tell you I was a journalist, but I was scared you wouldn't let me help you. Sonic I want to help you find Manik alive and when it's all over, I want to be with you. I love you." she said as she walked up next to the blue hedgehog.

Sonic turned toward Amy, seeing her green eyes pleading for forgiveness. He saw that she did truly mean every single word she said. Without another word he pulled her into a hug, gently stroking her pink quills, showing her that he had forgiven her and wants to be with her too when it's over.

Amy let go of Sonic, smiling in relief that he had forgiven her, she did love him and it would have broken her heart if he had rejected her. Figuring they had wasted too much time already, Amy quickly slipped on her jeans, red boots, and her brown jacket.

"Let me grab something from the vending machine and we'll both go looking for Manik. Wait here." Amy said before opening the door and leaving.

She made her way down the stairs, pulling on the collar on her jacket as the rain poured down on her head. She knew Sonic and she had to find Manik quickly since it was the last day Manik would be able to be found alive. When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she stopped in her tracks. In the front office Metal Sonic was in the front office talking to Big. She saw the cops along with Vector and Espio running through the rain, surrounding the hotel, they had found Sonic. The pink hedgehog panicked, quickly running toward the front office, her red boots creating giant splashes. She quickly hid behind a trash can remembering how Metal Sonic had seen her already. Once the robot left the front office, she ran inside, grabbing the telephone off the wall and hastily dialing the room number. She bit her lip nervously, waiting for the phone rings to stop; finally she heard the familiar voice she wanted to here.

"Sonic, the cops! They're here!" Amy warned.

Sonic quickly slammed down the phone, grabbing the message and phone, just in time before the room door swung open, revealing the cops barging in. Sonic quickly ran to the outside balcony, seeing the balcony to the next room nearby. He ran and jumped, landing on the next balcony before the cops could grab him. He wanted to run faster but he reminded the speed monitor in his phone that would make him fail a trial if he used his true speed. He jumped over to the next balcony, losing his footing due to the rain making it slick, his hands clinging onto the railing as his body dangling above the ground. With all his might Sonic pulled his body up onto the balcony, noticing the cops alert the others where he is. He slid open the balcony glass door, shoving his way past a blue hawk that was staying in the room. Sonic quickly opened up the front door to the room, running outside into the rain but there were cops running up on the stairs, leaving him no choice but to climb up on the stairs railings and get on the roof. Once he was on the roof he continued to run, jumping over vents, shoving past polls, squeezing through corners. He kept running till he reached the edge of the roof, he turned around to backtrack only to see Metal Sonic, Espio, and Vector with their guns aimed at him. Sonic squinted his eyes when a helicopter with a spotlight flew above him, shining the light down on him, blinding his vision slight.

"It's over, Sonic; now put your hands in the air and surrender." Metal Sonic snarled.

"You have no where else to go! Just surrender peacefully and you won't be in any more trouble than you already are!" Espio said in a strict tone.

"Yeah besides we really need to catch you so I can get my paycheck, I forgot to pay for the electricity bill for my apartment!" Vector exclaimed.

Metal Sonic used his free hand to slap his palm against his forehead.

Espio closed his eye and shook his head as he let out a annoyed sigh, he had talked to Vector many times to not bring up their money problems.

Sonic took a few steps back from the group, almost losing his balance when his foot slipped a bit off of the edge. He glanced down at the ground before smirking at the three cops. Without warning he leaned backwards allowing himself to fall off the roof. He yelled in pain when he made contact with the ground, but considered it only minor pain compared to having to cut off his own finger. He quickly got off of the ground, running over to a taxi cab. He threw the driver out of the cab, got inside and quickly drove away to the location of his final trial.

Espio and Vector were both shocked at the fact Sonic had willingly fell off the roof. They stared at each other both dumfounded as there minds were still processing the fact.

Metal Sonic threw down his gun in anger, wondering how the blue hedgehog knew they were coming.

[sonicgirl313]

Chapter 14

Fang rubbed his fingers against the temple of his forehead, groaning as he made his way back to his apartment. He was still upset about having to hear the story of how Nic the Weasel died. He reached into his coat pocket, fumbling around for his apartment keys, trying to figure out why Mammoth Mogul laid flowers on Nic's grave. Finally he managed to get his keys and unlock the door, but once inside he saw Mina standing in the living room, both fear and shock in her expression. He was confused by this until he heard the click of a gun. He didn't have to look to know a gun was being pointed at his head by a security guard. He narrowed his blue eyes as a familiar brown mammoth walked out of the kitchen, his threatening blue eyes glaring at the purple weasel, his hand grasping the handle of his cane tightly.

"I told you were playing a dangerous game, Fang the Sniper." Mammoth Mogul said as he constantly kept tapping his cane in his hand.

Fang snarled at the mammoth, wishing he could grab for his gun and shoot him dead. Mammoth Mogul narrowed his eyes before silently nodding his head. At the moment the security guard slammed his gun against Fang's head, knocking him unconscious.

Mina instantly called out his name in panic and ran over to the unconscious weasel, checking his head for any newly created wounds. But she never was able to the see the security guard raising his gun in the air and slamming it down on her head. She collapsed on the ground, slowly slipping out of consciousness, the last thing she saw was Mammoth Mogul standing over both her's and Fang's body, then her world faded to black as she lost consciousness.

Fang slowly opened his eyes, his head sore from the gun getting slammed into it. He looked around, searching his surroundings; finally it dawned on him where he was. He frantically looked around; realizing Mammoth Mogul put him in his car and sunk it. He tried moving his arms but ended up discovering his hands were tied to the steering wheel. Fang turned his head toward the right, seeing Mina unconscious in the passenger seat, her head slumped against the window and her wrists tied to the car door. Fang began tightening his hands into fists, jerking around his arms in an attempt to get free. But he froze when he saw the windshield began cracking from the underwater pressure. He glanced down at his speedometer and began smashing his hands into it, after a few hits the glass finally shattered. Fang ignored the pain of the glass shards cutting into his hands as he grabbed one of the shards and used it to start cutting the rope. He kept cutting till the ropes snapped, freeing his arms. At that moment the windshield cracked more and water began pouring in around their feet. Fang grabbed Mina by the shoulders, roughly shaking her body, telling her to wake up, but the female mongoose was still unconscious.

Knowing she wouldn't wake up, Fang quickly untied her wrists, watching as the water continued to rise. Thinking fast he placed his feet against the car door window and began kicking it, seeing the car was now half-full of water. He kicked and kicked until finally the window broke. He squeezed his eyes shut and held his breath as the water rushed in, engulfing the inside of the car completely underwater. He opened his eyes and wrapped one of his arms around Mina's waist, pulling her close to his body before swimming out of the broken car window. He kicked as hard he could, trying to reach the safety of the surface, knowing he and Mina would drown if he didn't. His kicks were starting to become slower, the female mongoose he was carrying began to feel heavier, and his lungs felt like they were going to burst. His blue eyes kept staring at the surface as he desperately tried to reach it. For a moment he wondered if Nic felt like him at that moment when she was drowning. The thought made him kick his legs harder than before, determined to reach his destination, finally with only last mighty kick he broke through the surface of the water.

The purple weasel gasped for air, savoring the oxygen rushing into his lungs once again. He lifted Mina's head above the water, hoping she was still alive. He swam to shore, pulling himself and Mina out of the water. Seeing Mina still wasn't awake he placed his hand on her chest and began pushing repeatedly, trying to make her cough up the water. To his relief Mina began coughing and opened her green eyes.

She groaned as she sat up, her surroundings coming into focus, she was surprised when she saw herself and Fang sitting on the shore.

"When I get a hold of that Mammoth Mogul I'll string up his neck." Fang said, venom dripping off of each of his words.

"What are we going to do?" Mina asked, worried about the fact she and Fang almost died.

The purple weasel turned toward her, placing his hand on her shoulder.

"You're going to go home and lock the doors and windows. Don't let anyone in except me." he replied, "As for me, well Mammoth Mogul did his part in our little game, now it's my turn."

Later that day Fang slowly drove up to the gates to Mammoth Mogul's mansion, he used Mina's car since his was currently at the bottom of a lake. The purple weasel snarled at the sight of the mansion, pressing his foot on the gas pedal a few times, getting adrenaline just from the sound of the engine. He wanted to make sure Mammoth Mogul paid for what he did; he shifted the car gear into drive and slammed on the gas, smashing through the gate. A security checking the mansion perimeter panicked when he saw the car heading for him. The car crashed into the wall, breaking it upon contact and pinning the guard to the wall. Fang got out of the car, his cold merciless blue eyes focusing on the stairway. Without even looking he aimed his gun and shot dead the guard pinned to the wall. He headed toward the stairs, his steps quick yet intimidating. Before he could reach the stairs a security guard shot at him, the bullet narrowly missing his head. Fang quickly turned, narrowing his eyes at the security guard; he fired his gun, killing the security guard. More security guards rushed into the room, all firing their guns at Fang, but the purple weasel managed to hide behind one of the pillars in the room, shooting and killing each guard one by one.

He killed the last guard in the room and began walking up the stairs. At the top a security guard tried to stop him but Fang shot first. The purple weasel smirked as the security guard fell backwards into a window and screamed as he fell to his death. Fang reached two large brown doors, he kicked them open to reveal a shocked Mammoth Mogul.

Before the mammoth could react Fang shot him in the shoulder, causing him to yell out in pain.

The purple weasel walked closer and closer to the mammoth, constantly firing his gun, injuring the giant brown mammoth. Finally he stood in front of Mammoth Mogul with his gun placed against his head, ready to fire.

"Now, Mammoth Mogul, you are going to tell me the truth. Is Ray the Origami Killer or not?" Fang snarled, his finger ready to pull the trigger.

Mammoth Mogul let out an annoyed sigh, angry at the fact that he managed to get shot up by a weasel. His blue eyes glanced upward at Fang, knowing he had lost the game against him.

"No he's not, you see I have the ability to hypnotize anyone just with a touch of a finger." he explained, "The Origami Killer intrigued me, I wanted to know how he worked, how he was able to fool the cops for so long. So I chose the perfect pawn and that was Ray the Squirrel, I hypnotized him to act like the Origami Killer. I had him kidnap Rutan the Echidna and see if he could successfully cover his tracks, unfortunately my little experiment failed. Not only did eye-witnesses see Ray kidnap the boy, but he also put the echidna underwater instantly, drowning him in a few moments. He was devastated that I made him take the life of a child; of course I myself don't care, that boy was street trash like all the rest. He's still under my control so that's why he came to me when you suspected him of killing Rutan, can't have any witnesses."

Fang snarled, his grip on his gun tightened, he wanted to do more than anything than to kill Mammoth Mogul.

"Alright now tell me this, why did you place flowers on Nic the Weasel's grave?" he said as he pressed the gun even harder against the mammoth's forehead.

"I will tell you this, that girl's death was the only death I feel guilty for. I owned the construction site where she drowned; she wasn't a pawn or any part of my plans. I place flowers on her grave, wondering perhaps she may have been an excellent pawn if she had grown up since she was willing to brave the dangers of a construction site on a rainy day. Her brother though I care less for, he probably deserved getting taken by his family and adopted by another." Mammoth Mogul answered.

Without warning Fang yelled in anger, smashing his gun against Mammoth Mogul's head, causing it to bleed.

"Give me one good reason I shouldn't kill you!" Fang yelled.

Mammoth Mogul grinned as he stood up, leaning on his cane, ignoring his bleeding wounds.

"I may have lost our game but I'm more powerful than you imagine. If you kill me I doubt the police will take your side, you will be sent to the Zone Jail for murder." he said.

Fang clenched his teeth, aiming his gun at Mammoth Mogul's head again.

"Believe me, you and I both know you wouldn't want to go to the Zone Jail, isn't that right?" Mammoth Mogul replied, his grin never leaving his face.

Fang's hand began to shake slightly, he wanted to kill Mammoth Mogul, but he knew he was right. Mammoth Mogul had too much power and there would be no way Fang could convince the cops to believe his side of the story. Finally the purple weasel squeezed his eyes shut, sighed, and lowered his gun. He couldn't go to the Zone Jail. That would mess everything up for him.

"You made a wise decision Fang the Sniper." Mammoth Mogul said with a laugh.

Fang opened his eyes, glaring at the powerful millionaire before him.

"I already regret it." he snarled, before walking out the door, pleased at the fact that he at least now knows who killed Rutan the Echidna.

Amy glanced at the clock on the wall as she walked into the hospital. It was seven after nine that morning and the rainfall total had reached almost five inches; she knew she was running out of time to find Manik alive. She walked up to the nurse at the receptionist desk, remembering how Scourge told her Nic's mother was in the hospital. After her visit with him she did research and discovered that Nic drowned at a construction while her brother gotten taken away and adopted. She also found out their mother's name was Caroline the Weasel. Amy tapped her hand on the reception desk, gaining the attention of a cream and orange rabbit named Vanilla that had brown eyes and wore a lavender dress, a red vest, red shoes, white gloves, and a orange ascot.

"Can I help you?" Vanilla asked with a smile.

"Yes I'm here to see Caroline the Weasel." Amy replied.

The pink hedgehog was surprised when she saw the nurse rabbit clap her hands together happily before quickly handing her the sign-in sheet.

"Oh she'll be so happy to have visitors; no one has ever come to see her since she got here. It's a terrible thing, especially since she has Alzheimer. Just sign-in and go to room nineteen, I'm sure a visitor will cheer her up." Vanilla said.

Amy nodded in understanding as she grabbed the pen and wrote down her name on the sheet. Once she finished she pressed a black button on the wall, opening up two large automatic-doors. She entered the quiet hallway, her green eyes scanning the doors for the number nineteen. Finally she reached her destination at the end of the hallway. She slowly opened up the door, seeing an old grey female weasel with long gray hair, blue eyes, and wearing a white hospital gown. Amy was surprised to Caroline in such a state, seeing the elderly weasel laying in her bed, staring at the raindrops running down the window, a sad and distant look in her eyes. Amy figured she probably would be like that too if she had lost both of children and even her memories. Deciding to let Caroline know of her presence, she let out a small cough, causing the weasel to turn her head toward her.

"Hi, Caroline, I'm Amy Rose. I'm a journalist and wanted to ask some questions about your son." she said.

The gray weasel slowly blinked her eyes, staring at Amy in confusion.

"Are you my new nurse?" she asked in a weak, yet confused voice.

Amy shook her head as she walked up to Caroline's bedside.

The weasel frowned and turned her head back toward the window.

"They're never on time with my pills. The old hospital was always on time with my pills, but I don't what they do here." she said sadly.

Amy didn't say a word, seeing that Vanilla was telling the truth about how bad Caroline's situation was with Alzheimer. She began asking Caroline a series of questions, hoping to find out information about Nic's brother. But no matter how many questions Amy asked she wasn't able to get answers, the only things Caroline would talk about was how she didn't like the hospital, how Nic was a good girl, and even momentarily forget she had children. Amy let out a disappointed sigh, hoping that she would have gotten a clue to where Manik was. She left the hospital room, noticing Vanilla standing in the hallway, checking charts.

Vanilla turned toward Amy, surprised to see her already out of the room.

"I'm guessing her memory problems showed as usual." Vanilla said.

"Yeah, she could barely remember anything about her past." Amy replied.

"Hmm, maybe if you showed her some items perhaps she'll remember some things from her past." Vanilla suggested.

Amy's green eyes brightened at this idea, making her wonder why she hadn't thought of it. She thanked Vanilla before going back into the hospital room, seeing if she could find anything to trigger Caroline's memories. She looked on the desk, seeing many origami figures, paper, and an origami book. She opened up the book, flipping through the different images of origami figures, but stopped on the page where it showed the image of an origami dog. Amy remembered that the most common origami figure found with the victims was a dog. Hoping that was a clue she picked up a paper and began folding it exactly how the book told her. It only took her a bit to finish the origami dog figure; she turned and showed it to Caroline, causing the female weasel to smile.

"You know how to make the little dogs too." she said with a smile, taking the origami figure from Amy's hand.

Caroline carefully examined the origami figure, the smile on her face never leaving.

"My children loved origami; I taught them how to do it." she explained, "My daughter Nic always wanted to name her dogs Max. I was wasting my time telling her that they couldn't all be named Max, but every time she named her origami dog Max."

Amy grinned in victory; she was able to successfully trigger some of the old weasel's memory. She started searching the room again for any more items. She spotted an empty vase on the night stand next to Caroline's bed; she was surprised to see there were no flowers in it at all. She remembered that she saw a couple of orchids in the hallway, so she left the room, walked down the hallway, and picked up one of the orchids from the vase. When Amy went back in Caroline's room, she was surprised to see the weasel gasp when she saw the orchid in her hand.

"What a lovely orchid. My children loved orchids." she said as Amy placed the orchid in the vase next to her bed, "We use to grow them in the backyard, when Nic died I laid orchids on her grave."

Caroline's glanced downward when she remembered that awful rainy day when her daughter died.

Amy felt sorry for her; she couldn't imagine what it feels like to lose a child. She was about to look around the room again but then she focused her eyes on the drawers on the nightstand. Out of curiosity she opened up the top drawer, revealing a photo of Nic and her brother together. Amy picked up the picture, finding hard to believe that the two children in the picture who were smiling in happiness ended up meeting with a terrible fate. She turned toward Caroline, showing her the picture.

"Are these your children, Caroline, Nic and her brother?" Amy asked.

Caroline glanced at the picture; tears began to form in her blue eyes. She slowly turned her head away again and looked at the window.

"They were good kids." she started in a weak tone, "Their father never looked after them, he would always drink himself away on beer and beat on the kids whenever I wasn't there. They didn't have an easy life."

Amy sat down on the edge of Caroline's bed when she saw tears began streaking down the elder weasel's face.

"I cried when they told me." Caroline sobbed, "I had already lost one child and they were taking another one away all because my husband let our daughter die on his watch. I met the people who adopted my son, they were a nice family. At first I went to see my little boy, but then I got sick and couldn't go any longer. He probably thought I didn't love him anymore, you can't even imagine how much I miss him!"

Amy placed her hand on the sobbing weasel's shoulder, rubbing it gently to comfort her.

"I understand the pain you must be going through, Caroline, but it is really important that you tell me your son's name." Amy said.

Caroline turned toward the pink hedgehog, taking her hand and wiping away her tears. She had Amy come close to her and told Amy her son's name.

When Amy heard this name she jerked back in shock, her heart racing in fear. She quickly stood up and left the hospital room, a focused and shock expression was on her face as she walked down the hallway. She already knew the person that is the Origami Killer.

[sonicgirl313]

Chapter 15

Sonic breathed deeply as he walked down a long hallway that was colored blood-red, heading for a white room, reminding himself constantly that the final trial was ahead. He wanted to do more than anything than to rush into the room and get the trial over with but the red hallway and the white room gave him an eerie feeling, as if he was walking toward the light of the afterlife. The thought caused him to take slower and slower steps, worried about what awaited him in the white room. He entered the room, seeing giant video screen surrounding a small table that had a video camera, a watch, a video tablet, and a glass bottle with blue liquid inside. He slowly walked up to the table, seeing his face appear on the video screens, revealing to him that the camera was recording him that very moment. Sonic closed his green eyes; he now was able to confirm he was not the Origami Killer. He knew that the real killer was watching him, seeing if he would complete the final trial. Wasting no more time since he knew he was being watched he walked up to the table, tapping his finger against the video tablet.

"Are you prepared to give your life to save your son's?" the video tablet asked.

Sonic froze instantly, his face turned pale, his heart raced as the tablet told him that the bottle with the blue liquid was poison. If he drinks it he would get the final letters and have one hour to save Manik before the poison kills him. Sonic's mind kept racing, thinking about how heartbroken Manik would be to lose him, but he also needed the letters since he failed the previous trial. Sonic picked up the bottle staring at the poison swirling a bit inside the bottle. Finally he lifted the bottle up to his mouth and drank the poison. He gagged as soon as the liquid ran down his throat, causing him to lean his body on the table. He lifted his head, staring at the video screens recording his face. He saw how upset and hurt the look on his face was, in one hour he would be dead. Sonic lifted up his phone when he heard it beep, but he clenched his fist when he saw that this time he only got one letter and that was H. Sonic felt horrible that he just drank poison and the killer only gave him one letter for it. With a sigh he put the phone in his pocket, hoping he had enough letters to find Manik. He picked up the watch off of the table, watching the small numbers begin their deadly countdown.

"Don't worry Manik, your dad is coming to save you." Sonic said to himself.

He ran out of the room as fast as he could, glad at least he could finally use his speed once again. He ran out to the taxi cab he stole, got inside to hide from the cops and figure out where Manik could possible be hiding. He quickly wrote down the letters he got on a piece of paper and entered them into the gps, the screen pulled up three locations that had the same letters and numbers.

"I'm running out of time, even if I use my speed I will still only have time to search one address because the cops are looking for me." Sonic said in a panicked tone.

He glanced down at his phone, wondering what would happen if he turned it on. He picked it up, pressing the button on it, and held it to his ear. His ear began twitching when he heard the sounds of a foghorn and seagulls. On the gps there was only one address near the ocean and that was eight-five-two Theodore Roosevelt Road. As Sonic got out of the taxi cab and began running to his destination, he hoped that was the right address where Manik was being held.

Shadow slammed his fist into the wall, letting out a yell of anger. He had been searching through the clues for hours but wasn't able to figure where Manik was being held. He took the ARI glasses off, throwing them very hard onto his desk; he knew that Manik was going to die soon. He turned his head when he saw Metal Sonic enter the office.

"Pack your bags hedgehog, the case is closed. You can head back to your silly GUN headquarters now, because I am going to arrest Sonic the Hedgehog." he said.

Shadow snarled, his crimson eyes glaring at the blue robot. He knew now there was no way Sonic could be the Origami Killer.

"Metal Sonic, you're an unbalanced, psychopathic, bucket of bolts that is willing to arrest an innocent person!" Shadow yelled in anger, starting to lose control over his chaos powers.

"Heh I'll take that as a complement, besides it doesn't really matter; I caught the Origami Killer, everyone's happy." Metal Sonic replied before leaving the off.

Shadow quickly stood up from his desk, yelling in anger as he unleashed a chaos blast. When he finished he saw the windows shattered, the walls cracked, officers panicking about what had happened, but he didn't care at the moment, he wanted to get rid off both the energy and his anger. His door ended up falling open revealing a stunned looking Espio.

"I'm going to guess Metal Sonic told you the news." the purple chameleon said.

Shadow didn't hold back the snarl that escaped his mouth as he grinded his teeth together.

"That demented robot is willing to lock up an innocent person just to claim the glory for bringing down the Origami Killer. But by arresting the wrong person it will allow the killer to roam through and the killings will continue." he said as he tightly clenched on of his fists.

The room was silent except for Shadow's hard breathing. He closed his eyes with a deep sigh.

"I know, Vector and I believe you." Epsio said.

This caused Shadow's eyes to snap wide open.

"When we encountered Sonic on the roof of a hotel, the look in his eyes weren't the ones of a killer. Vector and I will buy you time to try find the real killer." he said.

"We'll make it as hard as finding the computer room!" Vector proclaimed as he poked his head through the doorway, having heard the plan.

Espio let out a sigh before he and Vector left the room.

Shadow nodded his head, understanding what he needed to do. He sat down at his now broken desk, placing back on his ARI glasses. But before he could start searching the clues, the image of Maria appeared.

"Shadow I must warn you, be careful with your ability, in the end it will end up killing you." she warned before disappearing.

The black hedgehog closed his eyes, the warning finally clicked in his mind. Maria wasn't warning him about his chaos powers, she was warning him about the ARI glasses. It was because of them that he was losing control of his chaos powers and whenever he held his powers back it was slowly killing him. He had his mind set; he would use the ARI glasses one last time to find the location where Manik was being held. He opened up the clues, ignoring the pain pounding at his skull. He pulled up video footage of him fighting the Origami Killer in the Blue Lagoon club. He watched the footage carefully, his eyes becoming sore. He stopped the footage when he noticed something on the Origami Killer's wrist; he zoomed in on the footage, revealing it to be a gold watch. Shadow nearly stopped breathing; he'd seen that watch before. It was the watch the police station gave to their lieutenants which meant the Origami Killer was a cop. He moved on the next clue which was the gun the killer used to murder Scourge, but at that moment he felt something wet streak down his face from his right eye. He touched his hand against his face before holding it in front of him. Shadow froze in fear; on his glove was crimson blood which meant that his eye was bleeding. Time was running out for him, he had to solve the case quickly or else the glasses would kill him.

He quickly examined the gun, discovered that it was impounded from a murder case five years ago which meant a cop had to have checked it out. This left Shadow to wonder if Metal Sonic is Origami Killer since he was bound determined to prove that Sonic was guilty, but then he pushed aside that thought, knowing it couldn't be Metal Sonic since he already going too far of any lengths to discover who the Origami Killer was before Sonic was suspected. So with that he continued on to his final clue, the gas tickets. As he examined the gas tickets his left eye began to bleed, his heart starting racing, his breathing became raspy. The ARI glasses were close to killing him. Shadow struggled to keep his eyes open, lifting his shaky hand to activate the geoanalysis scans for the gas receipts. Shadow gasped for air, blood pouring from his nose, fighting off death as long as he could. A green circle appeared on the map, shrinking down to a highlight a small area that matched the location of the gas station where the receipts came from, only one cop lived in that area. Once he got the address Shadow threw off the glasses and fell out of his chair, struggling to breath. Fortunately he got the glasses off just before it could kill him. He stood up on his shaky legs, wiping away the blood from his face; he knew where Manik was being held.

Mina stared up at the train station departure sign; Fang was sending her away so she wouldn't almost get killed again. She turned toward the purple weasel, wishing she could stay and solve the case.

"Fang, please don't make me leave. I want to know who killed my son." she pleaded.

Fang placed his hands on the side of Mina's face, tilting her head up to face his. Mina stared into Fang's blue eyes, knowing that no matter how much she tried he was still making her go. She moved closer to him, placing one of her hands on his chest.

"I'll tell everything when it's all over." Fang assured her.

To Mina's surprised Fang pulled her head close and kissed her, she was in shock at first, but then she slowly closed her eyes and kissed back. Mina wanted that moment to last forever, but to her disappointment Fang pulled back and left without another word. Mina tugged on her purple hair with a sigh, wondering why Fang didn't give her a straight answer. She would have to wait to find out like Fang told her to.

"Nic, I'll go find help!" the young male weasel said.

"Hurry the water's rising quickly!" Nic pleaded, her hands clinging to the edge of the pipe, trying to increase her chances of surviving the situation she was in.

Her brother began running as fast as he could, his foot splashing through different puddles, if he didn't find help soon his sister would drown. He thought about running to his mother's work to get help but he remembered that it was too far away. There was no constriction workers around to either, leaving the only his drunken abusive father as the only option for help. The male weasel ran up to the worn down trailer, seeing his father sitting on the ground, drinking a bottle of beer. Nic's brother grabbed his father by his hand, begging him to help Nic or else she would die.

"Well then that'll be one less mouth to feed." his father replied with a drunken slur.

Nic's brother pulled even harder on his father's hand, begging for him to save Nic, but this caused his father to hit him, knocking him to the ground. Tears streaked down the young male weasel's face, mixing with the heavy rain that pelted his body. He begged his father one more time to save his sister, but the father didn't say a word a he continued to drink his beer. Nic's brother broke into a sob as he got off of the ground and ran back to where his sister was, with no one to help surely she would drown. Her brother ran up to the open pipe filling with water, horrified to see his sister looking very ill and her grip on the edge of the pipe slipping. He kneeled down and clung tightly onto her hand, begging her to not die.

Nic stared up at her brother with her blue eyes that were no longer full of life, she want to squeeze his hand and smile at him, but her body was numb and she had lost all strength. The water rose higher and higher, all she could do was stare at her brother, watching tears and rain drops streak down his face. Her eyelids began getting heavy, beckoning her into eternal slumber. She took one last look at her brother, knowing she was fixing to die.

"Don't forget about me, Nack." she said in weak tone.

Nack bit his lip as he watched his sister close her eyes and her head sink below the rainwater. He squeezed his sister's cold-lifeless hand, hate and anger developing toward his father for not helping. He now hated every single father in the world; he believed all fathers were like his. But if there was a good father he would make sure by testing them. That day Nack made a vow that when he got older he would find the one father that would do what his couldn't, and if they failed then they deserve to die just like his father.

Fang clenched his fist in anger as he sat down at his desk; he placed everything he had gathered from his investigation on the desk. He grabbed the lighter he bought at Antoine's, held a piece of paper next to it, lit it on fire and threw it in the trash, causing to the trash inside to set ablaze. His blue eyes watched the flames intensely, only anger was coursing through his mind. He picked up the letter Mina gave him; he studied it for a while before throwing it in the fire. He remembered that letter too well, he remembered typing up the poem on his royal five typewriter and sending it to Tails the day before he kidnapped Skye. He was saddened that Skye had to die but he felt no pity when Tails left Mobius out of guilt that he failed to save his son. The next thing he got off of the table was the shoe box filled with the origami figures he made; he knew every message he wrote by heart, he'd come up with each trial from his childhood experience. The bear for having to face his abusive father, the butterfly for the construction site he and his sister played on, the lizard for the pain he received from his father, the shark for how much he wished he could have been able to kill his father, and the rat for how he felt like he died along with Nic.

He let out a sigh and threw the shoe box into the fire, thinking about how he had done this routine seven times. He grabbed the cellphone off the table, the one that only he knew how to program and gave to each of the fathers. He hoped that Rouge and Ruby have a better life without Knuckles there, he deemed him a terrible father that deserved death when he found the red echidna's dead body in the glass filled tunnels, believing he would have survived if he was a good father. Fang threw the cellphone into the fire, watching as the fire consumed it, much like his anger did to himself. He blindly grabbed for Chuck's notepad of clients, remembering how he sneaked into the back of the shop when Mina wasn't looking and smashed Chuck's head in with one of the clocks he was working on, killing him in an instant. The only reason Fang called the cops was so he could give a fake excuse to Mina to clean their prints that way the cops wouldn't track them. He closed his eyes and threw the notepad in the fire, the truth was he knew Mina was attracted to him, but he didn't want her to be with him. He knew she would hate him as soon as she found he was the one that killed her son. He also kissed her in the train station partly to make her stop asking about the Origami Killer but also because he really did to come to care for her. He had hoped that if he threw her off the trail that they could be together but after seeing how determined she was that they could never be together. He knew if she stayed she would have discovered his secret sooner or later.

Fang grabbed an account book of the table, remembering how he took it from Scourge after he killed him, but wasn't able to get out in time because of Shadow arriving. He did kept Scourge out of the Zone Jail back in the days he was still a lieutenant, he even kept the gold watch the police headquarters gave him for his promotion. He had always planned to kill Scourge when he wanted to back out of the deal; Scourge was only there to provide him cover so the police couldn't track him down. He threw the account book into the fire, the book that had his sister's name. He used the name Nic, knowing the cops would brush aside the name since it was a name of a dead girl. Finally he grabbed the picture of him and his sister together off of the desk. He smiled at the memory of himself walking into the hospital room, seeing his mother sound asleep, for a moment he actually felt happy, like how he felt as a child whenever his mother came home from work, feeling safe and sound. He didn't want to burn the picture but he knew he had to get rid of the evidence proving of his existence, with that he tossed the pictures into the flames.

His eyes studied the flames carefully. His plan had gone perfectly, posing as an investigator to trick the victim's families to give him the evidence he left behind, pretending that he was never able to get any solid leads. He was even thrilled to discover that the cops believed Sonic to be the killer instead, now he was glad on that one rainy night when he found Sonic wandering in the heavy rain due to his black out and planted the origami figure in his hand. Every time he found Sonic in the rain, Fang would plant the origami figure in his hand. He did know of Sonic's visions of drowning bodies, he figured those were only nightmares caused by the thought of losing his son. Fang was also glad that he was adopted, that gave him the chance to change his name. He felt it was fitting. He considered the day his sister drowned the day his identity as Nack the Weasel died as well, only Fang the Sniper remained. He looked at his window, watching the heavy rain pour outside. He was the Origami Killer.

[sonicgirl313]

Chapter 16

Amy slowly crept up a stairway, trying to keep her breathing slow and steady. She was going to the apartment of Fang the Sniper otherwise known as the Origami Killer. She made it the top of the stairs, her heart nearly stopped out of fear when she found herself standing in front of the door to the apartment. She pleaded quietly that Fang wouldn't be there as she pulled out two needles. Amy placed the needles in the door lock, twisting and turning them until she heard a click. She placed her hand firmly on the door knob and slowly opened the door. To her relief there was no sign of Fang anywhere in the apartment, meaning she was free to search for any clues that could lead to where Manik was being held. She ran over to the desk seeing paperwork on the victims' families; she knew Fang must have had those papers to keep track of the families. She kneeled down toward the floor, opening up one of the drawers, seeing a police badge inside. Amy now knew why Fang was always able to outsmart the police, by being a former cop he would know how an investigation would be carried out and know what not to leave behind. She closed the door and got off of the ground, the scent of smoke reaching her nose. She turned to see the trash can with ashes inside. She didn't even have to guess to know Fang was burning evidence that could lead to his identity.

Hoping to find something inside the closet, she walked over to it and opened it up. She gasped when she saw inside was a police uniform.

"Of course trust a cop." Amy said in a sarcastic tone, figuring Fang wore that uniform and that was how he got children to go with him.

She was about to leave until she noticed something odd about the back of the closet, she knocked on it a few times, seeing that it shook a bit. Placing her hands on the back of the closet, she slid it away to reveal a door. Amy looked back for a moment, making sure that Fang hadn't come back before opening up the door and entering it. Inside she saw it was a small room with orchids growing, a typewriter with a poem typed on paper, origami figures, a security screen, and a laptop. Her green eyes widen when she saw the security footage was of Manik, his hands were gripped tightly around the bars over the wall, coughing as water kept rushing into his mouth. Amy knew time was running out for Manik, she had to find out where he was. She went over to the laptop, figuring Fang must have had the location saved on there. She turned it on and groaned in frustration when she saw it need a password. She tried the words Nic, Rain, Origami, and even Orchid, but none of them worked. Finally she remembered that Caroline said that Nic always named her origami dogs Max. She typed in the word, thrilled to see it accepted the password. At that moment an address flashed on the screen, Amy memorized it, knowing it was the address where Manik was being held.

She ran out of the room, planning to find Manik. But once she was out of the room she froze in her tracks. There in front of her was Fang, his blue eyes glaring at her as he had his gun aimed at her.

"So you found out my little secret?" he said in a threatening tone.

Amy clenched her fist, her breathing quick and rapid as she stared at the gun aimed at her.

"It's over, Fang!" she started, "All those children you killed just to find a father capable of saving his son!"

"Shut up!" he snarled her, pointing the gun closer to her, "You don't understand."

Amy bit her lip, hoping she would convince Fang to let Manik live.

"There's one child left!" Amy pleaded, "There might still be time to save him. Let him go. Do what your father couldn't do!"

Fang lowered his gun a bit, thinking about the words the pink hedgehog before him said, but then he narrowed his eyes, aiming the gun at Amy once again.

"Get in there." he threatened, forcing Amy to back up into the small room.

Once she was inside, he closed the door, locking her inside.

Amy began to panic; she didn't know what Fang was trying to do, all she knew was to get out of there. She starting banging on the walls, listening for which one was hollow. When she found one she quickly grabbed the typewriter, smashing it against the wall. When she did this it left a dent in the wall, she kept smashing the typewriter against the crack until finally it created a hole big enough for her to slip through. Amy climbed up, slipping her body through the hole, seeing it lead to the bathroom. She ran to the door, noticing the scent of smoke stronger than before, she was confused by this until she opened the door and saw the apartment was on fire. Amy coughed as the smoke rushed into her face. Fang was trying to get rid of all evidence including her. She took a few steps back before running and jumping over the flames that blocked the doorway, singeing her leg some. She made her way through the burning apartment, coughing as smoke continued to rush into her lungs, trying to stay away from the flames that nicked at her body. She made her way into the living room, letting out a gasp when she saw there on Fang's desk was a propane tank ready to blow.

Amy quickly ran to the front door, but when she tried to open it the door wouldn't budge. Fang had locked her inside. Out of panic she ran into the kitchen, inside she spotted a window. She ran over the counter, shoved the microwave out of the way and opened up the window. Amy carefully crawled up on the counter and out the window. Outside she clung onto the sides of the windowsill, trying not to glance down at the ground far below her. Amy looked over at the open window next to her, making sure her footing was steady she jumped over to the open window and crawled inside it, revealing to herself that it lead to the stairs. Quickly she ran down the stairs, not wanting to wait for the propane tank to blow up. She made it to the bottom of the stairs, swung open the door, and ran outside just seconds before the propane tank blew up, taking out the entire floor. Amy fell to the ground, coughing to clear out her lungs, glancing at the embers falling around her.

"I got to call Sonic." she thought.

She pulled out her cellphone, her shaking hand punching in the numbers. She had gotten Sonic's phone number after having to run from the cops in the subway. Amy lifted the phone to her ears, wanting the ringing tone to end, but no one answered. With a sigh she decided to head to where Manik was being held herself, hoping that Sonic would be there too.

Sonic was running as fast as he could to his destination, ignoring the pain throbbing through his body. His heart was beating frantically at the fact he was almost out of time. He kept running until he felt his head throb in pain.

"Please no! Not now!" Sonic thought, knowing he was having another black out.

He collapsed on his knees, trying to make sure his body would keep moving forward. The pain got worse and his breathing was quick and frantic. He clenched his teeth as he struggled to fight against the black out. But to no avail the pain got to him. With no strength left he closed his eyes and his mind went blank.

Sonic looked around, shocked to not find himself in a flooded area like his black outs usually had. Instead he was floating in a white void. He turned his head left and right, seeing nothing in his sights. He was confused until he noticed a strange red glowing orb of light flying down toward him. Once it was in front of him it emitted a bright glow, causing him to squeeze his eyes shut. He slowly opened his eyes, shocked to see floating before him was an orange female echidna with blue eyes, wearing a white cloth tied around her chest, a tan tribal skirt, tan sandals, white gloves with blue bracelets, white bandages in her hair, and a gold necklace around her with a tribal tiara on her forehead.

"I'm sorry for bringing you here during such a dire time but I had to speak with you." she said with her hands held against her chest.

Sonic narrowed his eyes, the echidna before him looked familiar. Just then his eyes snapped wide when he remembered during his time in his coma he had dreams about the same echidna.

"Wait I've seen you in my dreams." Sonic said.

"Yes, my name is Tikal and I'm the spirit guardian of the Master Emerald." she explained, "I was able to reach out to you when you slipped into a coma. Only when your mind was clear could I speak to you."

That was when the pieces finally clicked in Sonic's mind. The reason why he was seeing visions of the water and the drowning children was because of Tikal. With her powers as the spirit guardian of the Master Emerald she was able to make him clear his mind so she could communicate with him. But by her doing that it caused him to enter a black out and wander around mindlessly. But the only question that remained for him was why she gave him the visions.

"Why me?" Sonic finally spoke up, "Why give me all those visions of the Origami Killer's victims?"

Tikal frowned and closed her eyes before saying "That is why I wanted to speak with you."

She waved her hand across the white void, creating a vision of a graveyard with stones all marked with the names of the children drowned by the Origami Killer.

"Every time I feel so much pain and sadness when I witness a child have their life taken away by the Origami Killer." she started, "I understand his sadness and anger from witnessing his origins but he had chosen to take the corrupted path by letting his anger consume him instead of taking the path of healing. When I saw the bravery you showed when you tried to save your daughter I knew you were the one that could stop the killings."

Sonic was shocked at this.

"I had kept watch on the Origami Killer so when I had seen what child he intended to kidnap I would send you a vision as a warning. Whenever a child had been killed I would send you a vision to show you how it was too late to save the child. I had hoped you would discover my messages but because you were drowning yourself in the guilt of not being able to save your daughter you were unable to do anything." Tikal finished as she opened her eyes.

Sonic frowned as he lowered his head; he now knew he should have moved on from Sonia's death. He even knew that his daughter would be unhappy in the afterlife seeing that he let the guilt created from her death consume him. But he wouldn't let his guilt shadow him any longer, he knew it was time to let go of Sonia and move on with his life. He let out a deep sigh and lifted his head.

"I understand now, Tikal, I will save Manik and I will stop the Origami Killer." he said with his eyes full of determination.

Tikal smiled and said "Then I wish you luck, Sonic the Hedgehog!"

With her arms spread out she created a bright light.

Sonic squeezed his eyes shut from the blinding light, letting the world go black. When he opened up his green eyes he found himself back in the rain. With a groan he stood back up on his feet, feeling the heavy rain pelt down on his body. He clenched his fists and took off running in a flash, intending to save his son.

It was twenty-two after seven that night, the heavy rain continued to pour throughout the night causing the total of rainfall to be dangerously close to six inches. Shadow approached a large warehouse owned by Fang. He kept a firm grip on his gun as he looked around, searching for the killer. His crimson eyes focused on a ladder leading to the top of the roof. He climbed up on the roof and saw a giant hole allowing rain to enter. He loaded his gun, taking slow steps toward the hole, believing he would be able to see what Manik was being held in but before he could do that Fang kicked him in the back, causing him to drop his gun. Shadow clenched his teeth in anger as he stood back up, turning toward the purple weasel.

"I commend you for actually being able to track me down unlike the cops around here, but only the boy's father can save him, you on the other hand must die." Fang said.

He pulled out his gun and started shooting at Shadow. But none of the shots hit because with no longer the worry of holding back his powers, Shadow blasted chaos spears at the bullets, destroying them all. Fang snarled, angry at the fact he was facing a difficult opponent. When he tried punching him, the black hedgehog used chaos control to transport behind him and kick him in the back. Fang slid across the roof, forming cuts on his body and making the rain mix with his blood. He slowly stood back up, his hand balling into a fist

Shadow was ready for the final blow, he wanted to arrest Fang and show Metal Sonic that he was wrong. He charged up his chaos spear, getting ready to knock the purple weasel unconscious. But before he could react Fang shot a rapid fire of bullets with his blues eyes full of anger. Shadow yelled in pain as he felt the bullets penetrate his body. He collapsed to the ground, glaring up at the purple weasel.

A dark smirk formed a Fang's face, without a word he grabbed Shadow by his jacket collar on tossed him onto a moving conveyor belt.

"By the way if you're wondering that conveyor belt leads to grinder that will rip you to shreds in seconds." Fang smirked before walking away.

Shadow mentally cursed to himself, he wouldn't have lost to Fang so easily if he hadn't lost so much of his strength from the ARI glasses. He struggled to keep his eyes open as his body continued traveling down the conveyor belt, remembering where Fang said it lead to.

Sonic took in deep breaths; the address had leaded him to a warehouse. He could feel the injuries he received over the journey of trying to save his son began to take its toll. Without another thought he entered the warehouse. He called out for his son, wanting more than anything for his son to call back but he didn't. Sonic looked up and saw a giant hole in the roof allowing rainwater to enter. His eyes trailed downward, spotting a barred up well on the other side of the room. He ran over to the well, to his horror he saw Manik with his eyes closed and his head starting to sink underwater. Out of panic Sonic grabbed a metal bar, jamming it into the lock keeping the well closed, attempting to break it off. As he did this memories began to run through his mind, frantically searching Sonia, trying to make it through the crowd, the car, his daughter's horrified face, the blood. Finally the lock broke open. Sonic threw open the well's barred lid, tightly clinging on his son's arms and pulled him out of the water. Tears began to streak down Sonic's face when he saw Manik's face pale as a ghost, red surrounding his closed eyelids, and blue lips. He picked up his son's hand, nearly stopped breathing when he felt how ice-cold it was. Quickly he began to perform CPR on the small hedgehog in hopes of reviving him.

With every push he did on Manik's chest, with every breath he breathed into his mouth, the image of Sonia with her emotionless blue eyes kept appearing before his eyes. Every single time this image appeared made him push and breathe harder. He had already lost his daughter; he didn't want to lose his son as well. But no matter how much he tried Manik did not awake.

"Manik, please don't leave me!" Sonic cried.

He pulled his son into a tight hug, bawling as loud as he could, hating to be cursed with the fate of losing both of his children. All sudden a small cough caused Sonic to freeze his body instantly. He turned Manik's face towards him and ended up staring into two blinking blue eyes.

"Manik! Oh, Manik, your alive!" Sonic exclaimed as he pulled him into a tight hug.

"Dad, I knew you would save me." Manik replied in a weak tone.

Sonic pulled away from his son again, placing both of his hands on the sides of his face. Tears continued to run down his face, but they were not tears of sadness, they were tears of joy. Unfortunately Sonic remembered the words from his last trial, his smile slowly turned into frown as he glanced down at the watch seeing it was down to ten seconds.

"Manik, no matter what happens; you're the best thing that has ever happened to me." Sonic said in a stern tone, his green eyes watching as the timer were coming to and end.

He bit his lip, unsure how Manik would react to see his father die in front of him, but he knew wouldn't be able to know that. He held his breath as the timer neared the end. Five, four, three, two, one, zero. Sonic blinked in confusion before it finally clicked in his mind that the final test was only a mind trick. He laughed in joy that he was still alive, hugging his son one last time before the poor young hedgehog fell unconscious from exhaustion.

"Sonic!" a familiar voice called out.

Sonic turned to see Amy running toward him, the look of relief on her face when she saw both Manik and Sonic alive and well.

She kneeled down on the ground, laying her hand on Manik's head, asking Sonic if he would be alright.

Sonic replied to her with a silent nod. They both got up off of the ground, but as soon as they turned around Fang was standing in front of them.

"I've been looking for a long time, Sonic the Hedgehog." Fang started, taking slow and intimidating steps toward them, "Looking for a father that would be able to do what mine could not do and that is sacrifice himself in order to save his child."

Amy clung tightly onto Sonic's arm; the nagging feeling that the killer before them was going to try something would never leave her.

"You know it was a good thing I remembered you and your skills, after all you did try to save your daughter, too bad she died." Fang said.

Sonic's green eyes widen in shock. Fang knew about him because he was there when Sonia was killed in the car accident.

"I have to admit it reminded me of how I felt when my sister died." Fang continued, "It also reminded me that the reason why I don't completely recreate the event that happened by killing girls is because I don't have the heart to do it and I would feel like I'm the one killing my sister. At first I admit you were just someone I wanted everyone to think was the killer. Funny how the cops forgot one detail, your black outs started two years ago while I've been doing this for three years."

Sonic snarled as he moved his body protectively in front of Amy and Manik.

"I did all your trials now leave us alone!" he yelled.

Without warning Fang pulled out his gun, his finger on the trigger, ready to fire it at any second.

"I can't do that, you see your girlfriend over there knows my secret, I'm going have to kill you both." he snarled.

Sonic ran over and grabbed Fang's arm before the purple weasel even had the chance to fire. They wrestled with the gun, fighting over who would be the victor. At that moment a gunshot filled the air. Sonic backed away from Fang with his hand placed on his stomach.

Amy screamed as she watched the blue hedgehog's eyes roll backwards and his body collapse on the ground.

Fang turned toward the pink hedgehog as he reloaded his gun, ready to kill anyone on sight.

Amy knew if she didn't run she would be killed. She quickly ran up a set of stairs, heading to the roof of the warehouse, unfortunately Fang wasn't that far behind her.

Fang aimed his gun and fired, but snarled in anger when he saw the pink hedgehog run and dodge the bullet. He fired again, causing Amy to drop to the ground.

Amy scrambled to her feet, only to see her only way to run was to jump down. With no other choice she jumped. Amy yelped in pain when she landed on the ground, her ankle was sprained causing her to limp. Amy glanced back seeing Fang jumping down but not getting hurt like her. She quickly limped into the maze of ship crates, hoping to escape the pursuit of the killer.

Shadow groaned as he opened his eyes, his body still being moved by the conveyor belt. His ears twitched when he heard the sounds of the giant grinders getting closer to him. He lifted up his head, seeing not only the end of the conveyor belt, but also a platform as well. Thinking fast he grabbed onto the platform, preventing his body from falling down into the grinders below him. He pulled himself onto the platform, breathing heavily in relief. Shadow was about to search for Fang until he noticed something at the front of the warehouse. Metal Sonic was there with Vector, Espio, and Sally. Police troops had every exit covered with their guns loaded.

"He's going to kill Sonic as soon as he shows his face!" Shadow snarled.

The black hedgehog quickly climbed down the platform, unable to use his chaos powers due to being exhausted. He had to stop Metal Sonic otherwise an innocent person would be killed.

Amy kept frantically trying to escape Fang, but no matter where she turned Fang continued to follow her. She spotted a ladder leading up to a crane. When she tried climbing up it Fang had grabbed her by the legs. Amy screamed and kicked the purple weasel in the face with her good leg before climbing the ladder once again.

Fang snarled in anger, wiping away the blood from his nose. He was getting tired of having to chase Amy, he wanted her dead already, and so he climbed after her.

It was painful for Amy to climb the ladder but thankfully she made it to the top. She limped over to the crane control room and locked herself inside. She looked around, her breathing quick and raspy.

The lightning flashed and there was Fang outside the window holding a giant metal bar. He smashed through the window constantly, trying to stab Amy, but the pink hedgehog managed to dodge his every attack. Out of frustration Fang reached in and grabbed Amy by the neck and pulled her through the window, cutting her body on the broken glass in the process. He tossed her body near the edge of the crane's platform.

Amy backed away as she could, losing her hand's placing a few times. She glanced down, seeing a giant ship crate filling with water below her, she had no where to go, Fang had her cornered. She squeezed her eyes shut when the purple weasel approached her with the metal bar, ready for the kill. But then she heard a gun shot.

The metal bar slipped from Fang's hand, his blue eyes were wide, and his chest was starting to bleed. He slowly turned around to see Sonic behind him holding a gun; he was the one that had shot him. The purple weasel took a step backwards before falling down in the water below. His blue eyes began closing, watching as his body sank deeper and deeper into the water. Before he closed his eyes he could have sworn he saw the image of sister beckoning him. Finally he closed his eyes forever, his sister died in the rain and now he has died in the rain.

Sonic dropped the gun and walked over to Amy, lifting her face toward his. He comforted the pink hedgehog that began crying in his chest about how she was scared that he was actually dead.

"It's okay, Amy, come on let's get Manik and get out of here," Sonic said as he helped Amy to her feet.

Sally watched the doors of the warehouse with regret, she wished she had never told Metal Sonic about the black outs and now she would be the one responsible for Sonic's death. The warehouse doors began to open up, she squeezed her eyes shut, she didn't want to see the blue hedgehog she knew gunned down, but she was confused when the sound of gunfire never came. She opened her eyes and saw Shadow arguing with Metal Sonic about how he was going to take an innocent life; she was even more thrilled when she saw Vector and Espio had taken Shadow's side.

"I'm not having troops lower their weapons and there's nothing you can do to make me do otherwise." the blue robot said in a strict tone.

Shadow snarled in anger, deciding to do something he wanted to do for a long time. He wound back his fist and punched Metal Sonic hard in the face, knocking the blue robot to the ground. Shadow smirked at the sight of the angry robot glaring at them while Vector and Espio were dying laughing from what they had witnessed.

Metal Sonic grumbled curses at them before calling the order to hold fire. Everyone turned toward the warehouse doors and there was Sonic holding Manik with Amy next to him.

"Manik!" Sally exclaimed as she ran toward them.

Tears streaked down her cheeks, mixed with the rain as she hugged her son tightly, relieved that he was alive.

"Thank you Sonic." she constantly whispered as she ran her fingers through Manik's quills.

Sonic looked down at his former wife and son, seeing how happy they were to be reunited. For the first time in years his mind felt at peace, his guilt that he couldn't save Sonia would still follow him, but now he was thankful that at least fate allowed him to keep his son.

A few months after the kidnapping Shadow had returned to GUN headquarters. He gave back the ARI glasses, explaining how the glasses almost killed and he didn't want to see what they would do to a regular person. Because of Shadow GUN would have never known that they were about to give their agents and shoulders something that would have killed them in a shorter time limit. Shadow had also managed to get Metal Sonic fired from the police due to almost killing Sonic. Vector had now taken the robot's place; he promised Shadow that he would look at every detail of a case like he did.

Mina stared at Fang's gravestone in anger; she discovered Fang was the Origami Killer. She was hurt and disgusted at the fact she was attracted to the person that killed her son and even kissed him. She looked up at the sky, her hair wet with rain. Finally she began screaming in anger, screaming about how she hates Fang and will never forgive him for what he had done. She spat on his grave, not caring if anyone had seen what she did or not, the only thing she knew was she felt only contempt for Fang. She stormed out of the graveyard, wanting to forget she had ever met the purple weasel that rainy day, in fact she wished he had never saved her that night, she considered the pain Ash would have made her feel was nothing compared to the pain Fang made her feel.

She was about to call for a taxi cab until she heard a voice call out her name. She turned to her left and gasped with her hands over her mouth, there before her was her long lost lover Tails. She ran over to the light-orange two tailed fox and hugged him while crying in his chest.

"Mina, I'm so sorry I ever left you. I thought you would have hated me for not being able to save our son." Tails said, his blue eyes full of regret.

Mina wiped away her tears with a smile. She had thought he was dead after the court had declared him so when the failed to find him. She hugged him tighter, feeling happy that he was back in her life.

"Oh and there's someone I want you to meet." Tails said as he backed away a bit from Mina.

He gestured over his hand toward a figure behind a tree. The figure that came out revealed to be a female cream and orange rabbit with blue eyes and a white muzzle, wearing an orange dress, blue ribbon around her white collar, and orange boots.

Mina was shocked when she saw the rabbit was actually pregnant.

Tails grabbed a hold of the rabbit's hand once she was next to him with a smile.

"Mina, I would like you to meet Cream, my wife. I met her after I settled in my new life. We both decided to come here when I realized I should have never run away from my past. I left you, my former girlfriend to suffer alone over the death of our son when I should have been there to comfort you." Tails said.

The female mongoose frowned a bit when she heard the word wife, not because she was angry over her not being his wife but because he managed to find new love while her love turned out to be a heartless murderer.

Finally after much silence she said "I'm happy for you both."

She was about to walk away till she felt Tails grab a hold of her hand.

"That isn't the only reason we are here." He said.

"We want you to be the godmother of our child. I can't imagine how awful it is to lose a child, but I want you to be apart of our child's life. I know it can never replace the one you lost but I hope it can bring you happiness." Cream said with a small smile.

Mina was deeply touched by this, the happiness healing her broken heart. With a smile she hugged Cream and Tails; glad she would able to find happiness once again.

Manik stared in wonder at the new apartment his father had bought. It was large apartment that Sonic said he got it from a friend in a red.

Sonic walked in the apartment, his fingers intertwined with Amy's. They had decided they would put the disaster behind them and start a new life.

Manik challenged his father to a race around their new home.

Amy had to smile as she watched the two blue hedgehogs race around, laughing as they chased each other. Though they would always remember the event that had changed all of their lives, they would remember the days, they would always remember the heavy rain.

The End