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The station was quiet when Sonic arrived for his shift. Not many officers were walking around. Sally sat behind the desk, not smiling. She didn't even give Sonic a glance of acknowledgement. It made him shiver involuntarily knowing what he knew now. His heart quickened and sickness overtook him at the mere thought of what had caused the solemn atmosphere he was being forced to navigate.

He walked to the counter slowly. He did his best to put on a smile, slightly shaking as he tried to get the chipmunks attention. "Hey Sally." His voice cracked, the tone strained and pressured. The chipmunk finally looked up from her computer screen slowly. She looked tired; large bags beneath her eyes.

"What's wrong?" Sonic asked her. She didn't respond for a moment, merely looking at him. She sighed after a while. "Criminal activity is through the roof right now. Robberies left and right, attacks, gang fights-" Sonic nodded along as she continued, although his attention was straying elsewhere.

"Suprised you weren't called in last night." Sonic's ears perked. "What do you mean?" He asked. The redhead reached beneath her desk, pulled out a binder and opened it, pushing it towards the blue blur. He looked over the pages she displayed to him. From 8pm to 7am over 17 officers had been dispatched to numerous locations. "Could it be retaliation over the murders?" He suggested before looking back up at the chipmunk. She shrugged. "Who knows."

With that, the chipmunk returned to her work on the computer. "Wouldn't be suprised if you're sent out as soon as you walk in." Sonic rolled his eyes playfully. "I'm the best officer, what can I say?" He teased before walking away.

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Sally was right. Sonic hadn't even opened the door to his department before he and Knuckles were wisked away into a police car and sent to a local jewelry store.

Sonic looked over the report as Knuckles parked. Somebody had allegedly opened a vent, climbed through the ventilation shafts and found their way to the back room, where they kept a large, valuable gem; green in colour.

Without a word, the two got out of the car and began to survey the area. "Do you think they left fingerprints?" Sonic asked the large echidna. He was met with silence. Emerald green eyes trailed to the echidna in concern, however he just stared back in a deadpan manner. "Everybody wears gloves here." The echidna pointed out, raising his gloved hand - although it was more of a mitten.

Knuckles supposedly did boxing in his youth, amassing a large amount of awards and victories in that time. Sonic theorised that was the only way Knuckles got into the police academy, his strength was useful though.

Soon enough, the broken vent, where the theif entered, came into view. It was quite high up on the wall, most likely 10+ feet. Whoever had broken in must have had some sort of tool or wings to access the vent. "How helpful." The echidna commented as he walked closer to the wall. He ran his gloved hand over the new brickwork. "No sign of damage. Whoever it was didn't use a rope and climb up." He commented.

Sonic walked closer to look for himself. He ran his fingers across the wall, picking up a stray hair. It was short and white in colour. "Must've bumped into the wall though." He pointed out. There was a small smear on the bricks, seemingly makeup. Whoever the theif was must have had awful vision.

"Awful vision then." The echidna commented. "Matches a few crimes in the area I've been sent out to. Whoever this is steals a bunch of expensive jewelry and gems but always bumps into stuff." He muttered as he inspected the wall for anything else. Sonic watched in silence as the ecnidna's purple eyes scanned across the wall. Once the echidna was seemingly satisfied, he moved on.

"Best thing we can do is set up a fake scenario for this theif." The echidna suggested. Sonic nodded along as his superior spoke. "I'll most likely carry it out - don't have much to do now." He muttered, seemingly bitterly. Sonic didn't pay much attention to it. Something was always annoying the echidna, no matter how inconsequential it was.

Sonic innitially hated the echidna following a shouting match because Sonic had neglected to put his full name on his report. Every hedgehog had the last name 'The Hedgehog'. It was useless information. A singular glance would have told anybody he was a 'The Hedgehog'. Nethertheless, he had to do as he was told. Thankfully, after more chats, Knuckles seemed to be a decent guy - he had even offered to pay for Sonic's drinks during a night out.

The two quickly made their way into the building. Only two items had been taken; the green gem that had been reported and a small necklace. "Go back to the station and write up a report." Knuckles instructed as he surveyed the scene. He picked up a shard of glass from the floor, the two cases had been smashed to get the jewelry. "Get me a forensics team too." The echidna added as Sonic began to walk to the door. "Yes sir." He jokingly replied, saluting the scowling red echidna as he left.

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The small apartment was relatively fine when Sonic returned home. Amy had evidently cleaned the kitchen and living room; the counters were practically shining and the rug in the small, cramped living room was straight and perfectly centred with the television.

Sonic looked around for a few moments before the pink hedgehog came into view. She smiled warmly at him. She had yellow rubber gloves in place of her regular white ones and donned an apron. She looked like a typical housewife in that way. "Sorry if I'm being overly intrusive, I was bored and decided I'd pay back the favour." She rubbed her arm and looked away.

Sonic shrugged and smiled back. "You don't have to repay me in any way Ames." He walked towards the kitchen, brushing his hands against the side of the counter. "You're always welcome to clean though." He joked with a small laugh. Amy laughed too, but she tensed and looked down.

"Is everything okay?" The blue blur asked. Amy's emerald green eyes remained glued to the floor. She nodded slowly and hesitantly before looking back up at Sonic. "It's nothing important." She laughed. Her smile returned as she locked eyes with Sonic. "It's just weird I suppose. We haven't addressed anything-" she stopped herself almost instantly. "I'm sure you're busy- so I'll get back to cleaning!" She blurted out.

The pink hedgehog shrank into herself and stared at the taller hedgehog for a while. Sonic knew what she was hinting at. He didn't even know how to respond. He had hoped that by ignoring the situation, it would die down and eventually be forgotten. Amy clearly wasn't going to let that happen though. It was clear the pink hedgehog wouldn't stop until she was given a clear answer. An answer Sonic hadn't fully decided on.

"Well... I'm not busy now if you wanna talk." Sonic offered. He tried to smile as warmly and genuinely as he could, but he felt like he was failing to do so. Amy gave a pained smile in return. "Maybe another time." She muttered. "Tails will be back soon. Its better to arrange such a thing beforehand." Sonic merely nodded in response. He did not want to rope Tails into the odd situation he found himself in. The death of Vanilla had taken a large toll on him.

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1277 Words
Written/Published - October 7th, 2024
((Edited))