Team Chaotix - The Case of The Missing Dogs

Chapter 4

Tuesday, 4:08 PM: 42 hours left to pay the electric bill;

"Well that was a big waste of our time." Complained Espio as he, Vector and Charmy were finally able to leave Eggman's island. He forced them to clean dismantled bots and repair his doors before allowing them to leave, causing them to lose plenty of time to find any leads to their case.

"I'll say. Who does he think he is making us do extra work when we're in the middle of our own work?!" Said Vector who was displeased at how little his team got done with their case so far.

"And he didn't even give me cookies!" Said a disgruntled Charmy.

"That should be a blessing to your health." Vector said. "I wouldn't trust Eggman's cooking from here to Space Colony A.R.K."

"But I'm hungry! When am I gonna eat?" Charmy complained as he started flying in circles around Vector. He grabbed Charmy again by his coat to stop him.

"Yea, I wouldn't mind getting something to eat as well." Espio said.

Even though Vector would rather get back on track with the case, he too could hear his stomach starting to complain from the lack of food. He concluded it was important to at least try to take a break and hopefully with a relaxed mind, they could figure what's the next step gonna be.

"Alright team, we'll go to Meh Burger then, it's closest to us and has a nice view of the ocean." 

So they returned to the boardwalk and settled for burgers and fries. For Charmy, he saw a toy was resting on the side of his fries, his eyes sparkled at the sight of it, which was a water squirter.

As Espio returned after refilling Charmy's soda cup, he noticed Vector was staring out into the crystal blue ocean with his arms crossed. To anyone, he was taking in the oceanic atmosphere, but Espio knew his friend too well, something else was clouding his attention from anything else, something that's important enough to make Vector so pensive.

"Thinking about our case Vector?" Espio asked. After a moment, he replied with a slight nob.

"Yes. I thought for sure it really was Eggman. I expected the case to be done faster than any case we've done previously, but I guess I should've had us focus on more clues before we could determined Eggman being our true suspect. Now going back to square one is gonna take a lot of our time. And we still don't know how much danger the dogs are in, they're depending on us!"

"We are dealing with a setback that shouldn't too much of a concern because we're so early in the case. Don't be too hard on yourself." Espio replied gently. "Think back to many of our cases. Not all of them were easy and each had a level of uncertainty, but no matter what the circumstance, we always work through them and got them solved."

"Yea, just like last year when we stopped Team Hooligan from robbing those gold depositories. We thought it was Eggman too, and the case went cold for a few weeks, but once we took our time and finally saw clues we were overlooking, we solve it! I'm sure we'll catch the bad guy like we always do." Charmy reminded Vector. With his water squirter now lacking water, he substituted it for soda and proceed to splash the sticky drink on some nearby delicate flowers. The childish behavior prompted Espio to request Charmy of emptying the toy and to put it away for later when it was playtime. 

Vector couldn't help but smile, he had such a good team who always look for the bright side of a tough situation and was always there for each other. Being a Team Chaotix was certainly a blessing to him, and he hope it was the same with Espio and Charmy.

"You're right boys. Thinking about it, this case will surely be a cakewalk once we get on the right track!" 

This brought a lot of optimism for the trio.

"But in order for us to not lose anymore of our time, what's the best way to figure out the thief?" Espio asked.

The trio pondered and some ideas either didn't stick or wasn't possible, that is until Charmy said: "Would G.U.N. have any information on bad guys?"

Vector thought that was possible. They are a security and military organization who's main goal is to protect the world from any posing threat possible, including the many of Eggman's schemes. They also take down the common, but the most dangerous and ruthless criminals that ever walked the Earth. In fact, the very few criminals that's currently rotting on Prison Island are those that Team Chaotix took down with the generous help of G.U.N. It would be difficult for them to get immediate contact, but thankfully, they were good friends to Shadow and Rouge, who they, along with E-123 Omega is G.U.N.'s best agents. By visiting G.U.N and look at their database of the worst criminals of the world, has increased their chances of finding their person before the case has any chance of getting cold. Why? Because the thief may have done something similar to this crime already, which means they might have an old profile.

"Charmy, I like your thinking!" Praised Vector as he jumped from his chair. "We'll go to G.U.N right now, before the day gets late for us." He pointed out the sun was a few feet from touching the ocean's horizon.