Disclaimer: We do not own Team Chaotix, Sonic, Mighty, Tails,
the Tornado 3, Starlight Zone (Called Starlight City here), South Island,
or Central City.
That right is reserved by Sega and Sonic Team.
Mina Mongoose is a trademark of Archie.
_____________________
Music is said to be the voice of the soul, a force of the spirit, a form of self-expression
found in all parts of the world. The voices this soul was channeling had to be on the final
layer of Hades, this spirit had to be of a executed serial killer, and world wide would
have been considered divine punishment for the sound coming out of Max Martin's mouth!
"Oh why don't you come back to me my dar-ling! Our love shall always be -ar-ooound!"
"Maxie, stop!!!" Cried their resident blond drum beater Riley Stevenson.
Hayato Hattori nearly dropped his gitaur swearing in Japanese before switching to English.
"You're mis-qouting the lyrics again! Those weren't even from the same song! And I think
you damaged my ear drums again with that one!"
"Hey!" Defended the large bald guy, "I'm a sensitiv’ artist! Gimme some room ta’ grow!"
"I think the man who invented the drip torture considered himself an artist too!" Hayato retorted.
"And I'd just as soon submit myself to his sensitive free expressions as yours, more than yours!"
"Har har." Max retorted, "At least I can carry a note."
"After beating it to death so it won't fight back." Hayato finished.
"Com’ on guys, dun be like dis." Max sighed. "Ya’ know none of us are gonna to get better
unless we practice."
"We have gotten better, you were getting better, until you decided to hold that mike
hostage opposed to destroying antique records!" Hayato threw back.
Riley covered his head and placed his face against the drum belly. Here they go again.
"Hey! Dat's as much music as your gitaur! And ya’ know I neva’ touch out of date
records. People like it."
"I guess there would have to be some. So why don't you go BACK to it?"
"Com’ on, ya’ know we need a singer, and I'm da best we got."
"Buddah help us all."
"The state of bein’, or da’ man it's named afta’?"
"Whichever trades back that throat the frog switched with you first!"
"I sound perfect most of da’ time. It's jus’ when I’m playing with yous
guys dat I seem to go off."
"Of course, you're singing perfectly, our music is what's off. How logical!"
"Look, if ya don’t believe me, I’ll prove it. You guys stand at da front
of da garage and I’ll sing on my own."
Riley shivered, "I don't know if the paint on my family's walls can take
that, we've already lost two house plants."
"My singing ain’t dat bad! Now jus’ watch n’ learn."
Riley just wished he hadn't misplaced the earmuffs since the last time
he mowed the lawns. Hayato was wishing almost he had been born deaf.
Since Tim had walked out on the group and vanished into thin air
(unless you took that sadistic book worm Nicholas’ word for things,
but no one did of course), Riley's place had been their spot for practice.
And they were only beginning to realize how much Tim had held the
group together!
The blonde lad hid behind the Japanese youth, his face stern and
arms crossed while Riley couldn't hide his abrehenson at the idea
of Max singing without their instruments to drown out that
sonic death ray connected to his head.
Speaking normally he wasn't that bad. But he tried to carry a tune,
it was like a switch was pulled and it sounded like... Riley honestly
didn't have a comparison.
Hayato just accepted it as one of the horrors of the world.
One they should never have had to have unearthed. How could
Tim have bailed on them like that!? Walking out on them with little
more than a ‘sorry, no more for me, thanks.’ Baka, Hayato thought
to himself, That’s not how it happened at all. Tim had told him that
his life was getting too busy, what with him trying to figure out the truth
behind the dissaperrance of his friend Ben, and him joining Martial Arts
classes, plus still mainting his grades. But, after that, he too had dissapeared.
The fair haired fourteen year old hid behind the teen
three years his elder, hoping that Hayato wouldn't
mind being a human shield for the small lad.
Maxie put the microphone to his mouth, opened
wide, and played his pipes. It was right of the opening
scene of Back To The Future. The single B-Flat note
rang in their heads knocking them on their backs, of course.
But what really got their attention was the two speakers behind
Max which had blown out sending him flying onto the empty
drive way, leaving bright red skid marks on his arms and
underneath his shirt.
Riley shouted something at Max but he didn't hear a world of it,
if only that ‘lovely’ B-Flat would stop already! Hayato also
mouthed something, but it too went unheard.
"What!?", Max yelled.
"I think he’s gone deaf." Said Riley worried.
"Don't panic, it'll come back in a minute, so save your
breath until then, after that we can tongue lash his
empty head together," said Hayato with perfect calm.
His head still ringing, Max sat up, brushing his shirt off.
"My achin’ ears," he said, putting his fingers in his head
to try to dull the pain.
"YOUR aching ears!?!" Riley yelled, "It was YOU singing!"
Max stood up, looking at the damage he'd caused.
"All right, I guess I was wrong!" Max said hanging his head.
"You guess!?" Riley replied, his eyes wide and with his hands on his hips.
"I would ask if you're out of your mind, but you'd have to have a mind
in the first place!" Hayato added.
"Don't you start on me!" Max cried.
"Man, look what you've done," Riley said as he walked towards the garage
to survey the damage.
"I'm sorry, it was an accident. It wasn't like I did it on purpose!
What da Hell do you want me to say?"
Riley turned and walked up to Max, getting right into his face.
"What do I want you to say? Maybe admit that you have a singing
voice that could break even soundproof glass!? That maybe you
don't have a place here!?!? That maybe, just maybe, you're freaking
insane!?!?!?"
"All right, calm down, I'm sure we can work things out!" Hayato said.
"Calm down? CALM DOWN? He blows up the speakers, sings
with a voice that would make a hardened serial killer beg for the
gas chamber and you're telling me to calm down!?", Riley yelled.
"Hey come on. I'm sorry, okay? What do ya expect me to say?" Max asked.
"How about you realise that your suck and you're quitting?" Riley yelled.
That hurt, Max haden't of caused the explosion on purpose. Experencing
that was hard enough, he didn't need what he thought was his friend say that.
"If I quit, everyone does. I am da manager you know, it’s my band,
not yours," Max argued.
"Will everyone calm down and count to ten or something?", Hayato asked,
trying to keep a calm voice.
"Maybe Tim left because of you! Maybe he knew your voice
sucked but was too polite to say it? What do you say about that...
‘Manager’?" Riley asked, emphasising the word manager in the
most condensending tone he could manage.
"Well, for one thing, Tim was da’ singer, remember?" Max pointed out.
This totally deflated Riley’s theory.
"Oh yeah. I sort of forgot...," Riley admited.
Hayato blinked and shook his head. How could Riley forget THAT?
As he thought this, Hayato scratched at his arm a bit. His skin didn’t
feel right, but he figured that maybe it was numb from being tossed
around by the shockwave that is Max’s voice.
"I still say it was your fault," Riley argued.
The only one Timothy had told the real reason he was
leaving was Hayato, because Hayato was the only one who
could understand that the stress of being in their
band - Fluid Vibrations, the dissappearance of some of his
friends, and taking a Martial Arts class. He couldn’t do
everything. It wasn’t anyone’s fault. Still, it was fun to tease
Max about it.
"Let’s just drop it, okay Riley?", Hayato finally spoke up.
It wouldn’t do if they kept on yelling at each other.
"Fine," the youngest membered sighed.
"Maybe we should get anotha’ member to take Timothy’s
place?", Max asked.
"NOBODY could take Timothy’s place," Hayato corrected,
But, your right."
He’s probably only thinking straight because Money is at stake,
Riley thought snidely
Riley felt a little warm all of a sudden, but he just figured that it’s
from all the arguing in the room.
"But, who? Everyone we know of who can sing is either in their
own group, busy, or has dissappeared like Tim," Max said. He
didn’t notice, but his arms had healed up already, but he could tell
they felt different. He decided not to say anything, however.
Max rubbed his chin, his teeth shifted and clash in his mouth as he thought.
"We could always hold auditions."
"No way!" Yelped Riley his voice going shrill from the sheer idea of it.
"The last guy who answered your ad sold my phone number to telemarketers!"
"And his comments about ethetic purity wasn't exactly my cup of tea either." Hayato added.
"Yous guys are taking one bad example and making it da norm." Max defened.
Hayato crossed his arms and raised an eye brow, "Before him was that was the
guy who said causally he was the uni-bomber’s number one fan.
Before that was the girl who thought all meat packaging clerks
should be shot for murder, and she was the sister of the one who thought
all the planes should have hit on 9/11 because we are a nation that
should just commit mass suicide since it's, and I quote, ‘only a matter of time
before every nation in the world declares war on us!’ Face it Max! You're
advertisment skills leave much to be desired!"
Max hulked up to the Japanese teen, "You callin’ me an all around failure?"
"Just when it comes to this. Your training has been a waste of time!"
"So whose paying for the speakers?" Riley asked meekly. No one heard him.
"Look, let's check out some of the local night clubs and see if there
any singers who'd be willing to be part of a group opposed to a
stand alone gig."
"As if a pretty lady is going to pop out of nowhere just for us,"
Hayato spoke pessimisticly.
"Excuse me," Everyone started, they all looked to see a spanish
girl in a UPS uniform holding a large but rather light weight package
in her arms, an electronic clipboard in one hand. "I have a package
here for . . . Fluid Vibrations? . . . "
The boys looked at each but none was more stunned than Hayato,
no way that had happened just to spite him!
Of course, Riley and Max were checking the lady
out, not quite eighteen, they could guess, but that was
not logical, she had to get the job somehow, she must
have just looked young.
Finally Max, for once doing a manager's job and
accepting the giant cardboard box. "Dat’s us, da band
Fluid Vibrations. I'm Max Martin, Manager, who would da
box be from?"
"Sega Of America, Music Productions." The girl smiled
plesantly and put the box down and handed him the
receipt for him to sign.
"You're kidding." Said Riley.
"Nice joke, but I'm not laughing." Hayato added.
"Dis is great!" Max exclaimed.
"The person who made the shipment was one Timothy Jones."
The girl said trying to be useful to what she could tell was
clearly confusing the young men.
"No way!" Riley's eyes practically turned into exclaimation marks!
"Heh! Dat old ‘dillo! Tim got a job with Sega and neva even
told us!" Max laughed.
"It's not possible." Hayato said plainly.
"Of course it's possible." Max said signing the digital reciept,
"Tim wouldn't make a a fraud like this, it's just not like him."
"I'm sure that's why your friend got the job." added the girl.
Hayato suspected something was up... No way would Timothy had
lied about being too overworked with trying to locate his missing friends
and his Martial Arts classes.
The suspense hit Riley like a shotgun blast, "Open it! Open it!"
Is this what you meant by too much to handle?, Hayato asked the non-present Tim,
Didn’t think so.
"Keep yer pants on Riley." Max waved off the jumping Riley
so he could get a better view of the box. "Err... Anybody got a knife?"
"Yes." Hayato reached into his pocket and flipped open a Swiss army knife.
"If that will be everything I leave you boys to it." The girl cupped her hands
together and bowed, Hayato wondered if for a moment she was mocking his
ancestry but she simply turned and began to walk away.
Remembering what they said about fate Hayato called out as
he began to cut open the box. "Hey! We didn't catch your name."
She turned and faced them. "I'm Julan, don't worry,
we'll be meeting up sooner than later, I'm sure if it,
if your friend really has gotten a really important job
like you think, it stands to reason we'll be seeing lots
of each other until you meet up with him yourself." She
finnished before leaving.
There was no truck, but she had left, and Hayato felt a headache coming
on, what had just happened? However, this questions about this were soon
taken away.
"Whoa! Check dis out! Dis has to be from Tim," Exclaimed Max, bringing his
face close to the fluffy packaging. "I don't think anyone else would have known
about dis!" He pulled out a gold chain, cd player, and headphones with a tag
on them that said, ‘To Max/To Be Vector.’
It was true, the lads had been fans of the Knuckles' Chaotix game.
In fact, it was how they had all met in the first place. "He must have
heard you were the one singing." commented Hayato pulling out a
pair of small but expensive speakers.
"Anything in there for me?", Riley asked
"Calm down, I'll check," Hayato said. The young man looked into the
package, seeing something addreesed with the note, *Riley - a true
and charming friend.*
"Charming," Max started, laughing, "you’s about as charming as a,"
he didn't stop before Riley glared at him.
"Knock it off," he yelled before reaching into the package with haste
enough to almost knock it out of Hayato's hands. He pulled out
a large box and opened it up, ripping the tape covering it from
his impatenice rather then using the knife to open it. He opened
the box and pulled out a pair of items, allowing the box to fall to
the pavement below. The items were a helmet with a pair of holes
at the top of it and red vest with a bee emblem on it.
"A helmet and vest ... A Charming friend, Charmy the Bee? Oi vey,
talk about your bad puns," he said.
"Well, try em’ on," Max urged.
"I dunno, this is all a little weird," Riley said.
"Come on, what are ya’ chicken?" Max mocked.
"No, and I'll prove it!" Riley said, putting on the helmet and then
the vest, noting both fit him perfectly.
"See, nothing bad happened," Max said.
"Is there anything for me in there?" Hayato asked.
Hayato set the box down and noticed something in it with his name
on it too, as he expected, although he too thought this was wierd.
Timothy was kind, true, but he preferred to give things to people in
person, not sending them via UPS, especially considering how the
American Postal System works. Oh well, never look a gift horse
in the mouth, as these Americans say.
With a swift, Ninja-like Motion (which did not surprise the others because
Hayato comes from a line of Ninja, which can be traced back to Hanzou
Hattori), he quickly cut the tape from the box, and put his knife away.
Inside were gloves and sandels just like the ones Espio wore in Sonic Heroes.
The gloves had a sort of purple handguard on them. The Sandels were plain
black, but both had a part that was wrapped up with tape, much like Espio’s.
"Hmm.. This is cool, but...Where’d he find them?", the Ninja no Matsu (Decendant of
the Ninja) wondered.
"Maybe he got ‘dem from his job at Sega," Max suggested.
"Maybe."
Hayato’s acute senses were telling him something was off, but he wasn’t quite
sure what... And Timothy wouldn’t do anything to hurt them... Maybe it was
his imagination. He was a bit on edge since Timothy’s friend Charlie disappeared...
...No, before then. Since Timothy left the band.
He was going to ask Max what he thought of all of this but
saw he was already wearing the head phones and gold chain.
Well, they hadn't been covered in anthrax, that was for sure.
Hayato was reminded of another American saying, wait,
or was it British? In for a penny, in for a pound. Shrugging and
checking the gloves and sandles for surprises, Hayato deposited his
shoes and socks just inside the garage placing the sandles on his feet.
Hayato walked back to his partners in ‘crime’, Riley had turned
hyper-active from having heard from Timothy after so long. The chain
was weighting down on Max making him lean foreword, but he
aparently wasn't about to admit it. Hayato himself admitted the
gloves and sandles were comfy, good tailorship for some product
tie-ins, they just might help him focus he thought.
"Now dat we’re all propery attired." Started Max snapping his jaw,
his old overbite showing. "How about we’s install dease new babies
Tim gave us?"
Hayato spoke plainly. "If you destroy those, you know what will happen."
Instead of engaging in another insults match, Max instead in cheer for their
replacement toy just shurgged it off his thick hide. "Don't worry, dease things are
state of the art, ‘sides, I got a good feeling this time and if I just keep my voice
low nothing can go wrong."
"We shall see." Hayato commented smoothly.
"Come on!" Riley hoped up and down to get the others to notice the kid. "Let's
set ‘em up already!"
"Works fer’ me." Max answered picking up the impressive speakers one in both
arms, wondering how that slim lassy had managed to move them inside that cheap
cardboard box.
Putting them down in front of Riley's drums, Max, with Hayato's help, moved the
damaged ones outside, hopefully Riley's family wouldn't have to find this out.
Pushing the new load speakers with the built in amps close to the very back
of the garage, Hayato had to practically sit vertical on the wall to wire them in,
glad he was wearing glove or he might have shocked himself, the power was off
of course, but he never really trusted machines.He always prefered the natural
and simple, half the reason he wore sandles in the first place even among the
electric wires.
Hayato stood up, dusting his gloves off. "Okay, I think it's plugged in right,
let's give it a try."
"You think?" Riley glared
"I trust ya’," Max said.
"Hey, I don't trust these things and the rest of your infernal technology as it
is, don't start on me okay?," Hayato said.
"All right, flip it on," Riley said I'd better be ready to fly out of here incase
that thing blows up. He didn't know where THAT thought came from but
chose to ingore it. He watched Hayato turn the switch to on, feeling the
tension inside of him release when the speakers didn't explode.
Riley nervouslly started to play, Hayato joining him seconds after. So far,
so good, the sound was commng through loud and clear and nothing had
exploded. Max started to sing and lo and behold, his voice didn't blow
anything up.In fact, this time, his voice sounded all right.
As he sang and Riley played, Riley noticed his energy level rising,
his torso itched and he felt something on his back. The music however
seemed to mesmerise him and he was compelled to continue playing.
Even as a pair of black-striped yellow attennai sprouted through the
holes in his helmet, he didn't take notice of it. His brain soon realized
the extra sensory information the attennai provided him, but he didn't think anything
of it, if anything things were back to normal and he'd wondered why they weren't
working properly in the first place.
Did the room seem bigger? No, the vest and helmet still fit just fine,
so he coulden't have shrunk. Why was his torso, arms and legs itching?
He stopped playing just for a second to pull up his shirt, the fuzzy yellow
with black stripes pattern was there was normal, the peach skin on his arms
and black skin on his legs hadn't of changed colour so he didn't know what
the problem was. The itching seemed to vanish a few seconds later anyway;
his imagination he assumed.
A few seconds later, the feeling in his back led to him feeling his wings emerging
through the holes in the back of his vest, he fluttered them, creating a small
draft that had him hovering a few centimters off of the ground, it was good
that they were working again; forget clothes, he felt almost naked without his wings.
His face ached and eyes felt a bit funny, he blinked his eyes before looking at a mirror on
the wall next to him.
Not that he was vain, Max had put the mirror there for reasons known only to him.
His little black nose was still there check, his yellow eyes there was normal, check
and the peach tone of the bottom half of his jaw, yep, everything normal.
He felt something not unlike the feeling of water flowing off of his body.
He looked down, thinking his clothes had melted, only to see his vest, shoes,
gloves and helmet there as normal with no evidence anything had
fallen off of him. He smiled and floated higher, his small size requuring it so he could keep his
instrument up to the mic as he continued to play. These new speakers are working well,
he thought. He didn't know where Mighty got them from or why he was using the
codename "Timothy Jones", probably some new crazy adventure he was
getting into, he assumed. Oh well, he knew everything would work out.
As the group finished the soung, Charmy did several back flips and beamed.
The new speakers were fantastic.
Hayato didn’t notice the changes that happened to his friend because he was
too concentrated on playing. Whether in the midst of a battle, or playing a
tune on his sitar, he was the epitomy of concentration. As he played, his skin
started to get purple and much more scaly then before. Too concentrated
on playing, Hayato had cleared his mind of everything but the music.
A yellow horn stuck out of his head, near where his nose was, as his dark
brown hair receded into his skull, which started to change shape. His eyes
connected together in typical Mobian fashion. His Brown eyes then changed
to a brillant gold color.
Removing the pesky shirt that the others had insisted that he wear, his green
backscales Were now free to be seen, and then he used the pick he was using
to cut through the pants. They were just too uncomfortable for his tail anyway.
It could curl up, just not THAT much.
Though he didn’t notice, he was shorter than before, but the remaining clothes
still fit. His chest and muzzle were both still human tone, but they were scaley,
like the rest of his body.
His back to his friends, Max never saw anything, not that he would have
noticed anything to begin with, Espio and Charmy are playing perfectly,
Max thought. Mighty really had done us a favor by sending us those
new speakers. Max was also able to maintain some self control to
where his voice didn't damage the mike or the equipment.
He leaned foreword more, resuming his normal posture, the mike felt
clumsy in his hands, his held it perfectly dispite his slightly more crude hands than the
others. He bent his knees, shifted his muscular weight. He might not have been
a Dulcy the Dragon, but he wasn't regsistered as a Strength-Type in GUN's
database for nothing. His cloths shrank, chafing against his muscular body
as his heating green scales clashed with them.
Feeling intense from the other not complaining about his singing mid-song
as normal, Max flex his body to the maxium, splitting the shirt at the seams, falling
away, why not? Professional rockers did even more intense things as live performances
like the Tokyo Shock Boys.
His pants and briefs were next, but he didn't mind, after all they were just for show anyway.
His shoes felt uncomfortable for a moment but wiggling his claws a bit was all he needed to
wear them back into place.
He swished his thick tail behind him, Espio jumping and Charmy just hovering as
always to avoid it. Espio said nothing, the fellow reptile always got like this during music day.
Espio wondered though if he wore those headphones just so he didn't have to hear
himself during pratice. As it was, Max broke out into several dance movements,
still holding the mike in his, bare, gloved hands. His nose, snout, flared, his mouth, jaws, snapped
as he continued to sign. His blue, orange eyes closed as he lost himself in his singing.
He twisted his neck, his upper torso, to the sides as he moved in beat with Charmy's drumming,
Vector staying on vector on each sylible incredibly.
He scrunched his eye brows, eye ridges rather, together from the force of the last few notes,
somehow the speakers held and Vector spun on a heal and shot a finger at their imaginary audiance.
The trio looked over the garage, wondering just where they were.
"What are we doing in this place anyway and how did we get here?", Charmy asked, flying
around the garage and examining everything. "I smell a conspiracy. Who did this to us?
Come on, speak up!" he yelled.
"Calm down! Dere ain’t no conspiracy!", Vector yelled back.
"Oh yeah, oh yeah? Then just how did we get here?"
"I dunno but there ain’t no conspiracy!" Vector bellowed.
"All right, all right. So, why are we here? Hun? Hun? Hun?" Charmy persisted.
Espio just stood there shaking his head and rubbing his eyes.
Where did that kid get all that energy?
"I don't know, jus’ lemme think for a minute here!", Vector said.
Charmy flew out of the garage and out into the sun, it felt warm and inviting. He saw some
kids playing soccer in their yard. One of them missed a ball that went into the street.
Charmy saw one of the kids running after it just as a car was coming down the street.
With haste Charmy dove down and grabbed the ball, dropping it behind the kid, who looked
at him with his eyes wide.
"Those things are heavy kid! Never run out into the street without looking both ways!"
"Thanks Mr Bee!", the kid said. "Say, what are you anyway a robot or something?"
"A robot!" Charmy said, folding his arms, "Do I look like a robot? Sheesh, get your eyes checked!"
"I'm sorry mister, I didn't mean to insult you! Thanks for saving me there!"
"It's okay kid, just be carefull about who you call a robot in the future. And no problem,
just doing my job!", Charmy said, flying back into the sky and arround the block.
He flew right over a yard with a dog in it. The dog started to bark, it's owner yelling
at it to shut up, which fell on deaf ears as the dog barked louder. Charmy shook his
head before flying away and back into the garage.
"So, figure anything out yet?" he asked.
"Yeah, we have to find a way home! Preferibly without anyone seeing us!" Espio said.
"Easy for you to say, you can become invisble and you," Vector said pointing to the
bee, "are so small, no one will see you!"
"Um yeah ... no one," Charmey said with an innocent smile.
A breeze appeard out of nowhere, and seemed to be drawing air towards
the driveway.
"What is that?" Charmey asked.
Vector looked outside and saw a speck of light appear a meter above the pavement
halfway down the garage. That speck of light quickly grew into the size of a large
pizza and then into the size of a picnic table. Soon, a swirrling form of blues,
whites, purples, blacks and yellow formed within it. The trio felt drawn to it.
"I think that's our way back home!" Vector said.
"And you're basing that on, what exactly?" Espio said.
"It looks like a fun ride, let's go!" Charmy yelled, flying towards the vortex.
Vector chased after him, trying to get him to stop but it was to no avail as Charmy
dissappered into in a flash on white light. Vector shruged his shoulders before grabbing
the speakers and jumping in after him in another flash of light.
That left Espio standing there.
"When in Rome," he said, shrugging his shoulders and jumping in after the duo, but not before
bringing along the intruments they carelessly left behind. Thank Destiny for Subspace Pockets.
The vortex remained open for a few seconds after before closing, leaving no sign it had ever existed.
The trio flew through the tunnel. Charmy flew with his right arm extended, loving the ride.
"Weeeeeeeeee!" he yelled. He looked back at his companions, they seemed far less amused by the ride.
Then, as soon as it had started ... it was over. They all collided with a white barrior of light and found
themsevles landing on grass nearby pavement in a big city.
"Ah! Central City! Home Sweet Home!", Charmy said as he exited the portal.
"Yeah. Nuthin’ like bein’ back on our home turf!", Vector added, still carrying the speakers.
"Hmm..." Espio pondered.
"What’s wrong, Espio?"
"Just wondering, how did Mighty know where to find us?"
"Huh?"
"WE didn’t even know where we were. Mighty’s always been bright, but he’s no telepath."
"Hmm..."
"Why don’t we just go and ask him, huh? Huh?", Charmy asked.
"...Hmm... Maybe... Vec, do you still have that box?"
"Yeah, why?"
"The return address."
"Oh." The Croc replied, he read off the top.
"Apartment 1C, Dreams Street 101, StarLight City, -South Island?!"
"Well that should make things intersting." Espio mumbled.
"I don't think I can fly that far." Charmy thought aloud.
"We can't fly at all!" Vector pointed out.
"You could always ask that female bee your engaged to for a favor."
"Saffron?!" Charmy paniked. "No way! Now that I'm back she'll never let me leave her
hive again!"
"Unless one of us owns a boat that he's been keeping from the others, I think our
options and funds are limited." Espio stated plain as day.
"We could always do some dectective work and-"
"Three months and your second attempt to eat us in our sleep later. . . .
Seriously we might be able to get a loan."
"But who'd loan money to dead beats like us?" Charmy interjected.
"Why don't we do what we always do?" Espio asked at last. "Wait around for
Eggman to attack the place we're staying at by sheer chance, then beat him to a
pulp and take his latest flying war machine for a joy ride until it breaks down on us?"
"Hey do you hear something?" Charmy asked, stopping and hovering in place.
A distant repetitive swishing sound was heard by all, the Chaotix get ready for battle,
only to have an orange fox emerge.
"Hey!" Pointed Vector. "Ain't youse that fox boy whose always tagging along with the
blue hedgehog whose always starting fights Knuckles?"
The fox boy didn't response to the question. "Woah! Three at once! This is sure new!
I felt something different this time, but I didn't expect this. Well, I'm Kyle, but everyone
around here just calls me Tails. And you would guys would be?"
"Vector."
"Espio."
"Charmy! Charmed to meet you, I’m sure!"
The reptiles groaned.
"Anything else you go by?"
"Yep! We're Team Chaotix!"
The fox's ears wilted. "Well, if that's what you're called... "
"Hey! You wouldn't happen to have a way to South Island, StarLight City would ya?"
Bumped in Vector. "A pal of ours called Mighty sent us a gift and we finally found
out where he's been and we need a free ride."
The fox landed and looked them over. "Well, I think I could
take one of you in the Tornado III. But there's only room for one."
Espio did a foreword flip and landed smoothly on the side of a tree, sitting
opposed to the force of gravity. "That won't be a problem with me."
Tails shook off the surprise. "But the trip there might takes hours."
"That won't be a problem with me." Espio repeated himself.
"Can I sit in your lap?" Charmy buzzed to the other flier.
"...I think so." Tails thought it over.
"Then I get the second seat." Vector finnished.
[
"Okay." Kyle knew he was going to be using the jet engine the entire trip
just to stay airborn. "Just hope your good at keeping your balance"
"Wha-?" Vector didn't get that.
-Half An Hour Later Over The Ocean-
"Whaaa!" Vector croaked as he shifted his body weight foreword and
backwards violently, the velocity of the plane being the only keeping
The Tornado III from spinning out of control. The crocodile wished the kid
had said the second seat was on the fricking wings! At this point he was willing
to just swim it sharks or no sharks.
Charmy kept figiting in Tails' lap, again erroding on the fox's concentration. Espio,
well, hopefully he was just being quiet rather than having fallen off the bottom of the
plane with all the roughhousing.
-A Hour And One Burned Out Jet Engine Later-
"Oh ground I love you, love you, love you!" Vector kissed the asphalt for the fifth
time that minute.
"Free! Free! Free!" Charmy buzzed and zipped every which way, able to move
freely again.
Espio just put a comforting hand on Tails’ shoulder as the fox hugged the jet on the
Tornado III's underside, the inside reduced to slag from the stress put on it
Tears in his eyes, Tails shot a deadly stare at the three. "You guys owe me a replacement
engine!" He snarled.
The trio froze and stared at him. Vector talked smoother and faster than a Weasel making a score.
"Well,thanksfertheride,gottago,seeyalater." Vector stuffed both his team mates in his large jaws and
bolted.
Once he'd ran a fair distance, Vector released the other two. Espio brushed himself off.
"Geeze vector, you ever hear of a breath mint?"
"What's that supossed to mean?" Vector demanded, his hands on his hips.
"Can we fight later? We gotta go find Mighty!" Charmey said.
"All right already! Let's see, Apartment 1C, Dreams Street 101," Vector said.
The trip looked just over the hill in front of them
"Oh, it shoulden't be hard to find, how many streets can there be in...," Charmy said.
"Er, Charmy..." Espio started, pointing to the scene ahead of them.
The city before them, was huge and beautifull with buildings and roads, and everything.
Traffic poured through the city in all directions. The trio followed the nearest street into
the city, the sounds of the city almost overhweling their ears.
"I'll find it!" Charmey said. He took to the air, flying out of view from the remaining duo.
"He'll never find it!" Vector said.
"I'm just gonna ask someone for directions!" Espio said.
Espio walked to a weasel standing in a corner under a light smoking a cigarette.
They seemed to argue a bit before Espio gave up and walked back over to Vector.
"Well?"
"Er ... he didn't know where it was," Espio answered, glaring back at the weasel.
"Let me try someone," Vector said, walking over to a man walking into a office building.
Espio stood there as Charmy flew back down.
"Well, any luck?" he asked.
"No, but I did find a really good restaurant a few blocks south!" he said.
Espio's eyes went wide and he shook his head. Vector walked back, seeming to be satisfied.
"Okay, he told me it's five blocks west," he said.
The trio started walking, taking in the sights of the city as they walked.
Eventually, they came to the right building.
"Okay, Apartment 1C," Vector said.
They walked into the lobby, pleasent music was playing. Vector walked
over to the directory and looked up Mighty's number. Pressing it on the phone,
he waited for an answer.
"What if he isn't home?" Charmy asked.
Mighty picked up a few seconds later.
"Guess who's back!" Vector announced.
"Uhh..." Mighty was surprised. Moreso at the fact that he recognized the
voice, than at who it is, "Vec? Where are you?"
"The Lobby."
"Of what, man? Speak up!"
"Of your hotel, hardhead."
"Knock it off you crocodile skin-bag. Why couldn’t you just call me from
your place of operation?"
"My wha?"
"Your office."
Vector sweatdropped. He didn’t think of that. "Uhh...."
"None of you thought of that, huh? Look, just get up here. It’s easier
to talk in person than over a phone - especially considering Espio’s
Techno-phobia."
Another good call. How come Mighty can always out think me?/, thought the Crocodile.
"Uh... sure. We’ll be right up," he said as he hung up.
A Few minutes later, "Took you THAT long to find the apartment? You guys sure
you should have even bothered coming to StarLight? Anyway, what did you
want that was so important that you had to come here for?", Mighty Asked.
He was then surprised as Vector did something he didn’t do often. Grovel.
"Pleeease come back! The Team hasn’t been the same without you!"
"...Enough with the Crocodile Tears, Vec," Espio said, rolling his eyes.
"Yeah," Chuckled Charmy, "Your not fooling anyone."
Vector looked up and noticed the irritated look on Mighty’s face.
Looks like they were right.
"Umm... Seriously, can you please rejoin our Detective Agency? It hasn’t been the same."
"No. Sorry, helping people out of a crisis for a fee isn’t my thing," Mighty answered.
"But, what about the BAND?," Asked Vector.
"THAT I enjoyed. But, I think I’m a bit too busy now. Adventuring and with
my new business."
"What is your new business?", Asked Espio.
Mighty sighed, "I’m sick of telling people, look it up in the yellow pages sometime."
"That’s not fair! I wanna know!", Charmy whined.
Mighty smirked and shook his head, "Maybe later. Anyway, I think that a reunion
concert would be good. I could fit THAT into my schedual."
"The replacement speakers you sent to the office were much appreciated by the way." Spoke Espio.
Mighty blinked. Speakers? This may be a clue of the mysterious entity or entities behind
these transformations and teleportations, thought Timothy. "Uh, er, right, I remember,
sorry, I've been so busy lately I forgot I sent it."
"Understandable." Espio said flatly. "I don't suppose you could rent out some
equipment and intruments, there wasn't much room on the fox's plane."
"Fox?"
"A friend, of a friend, of a friend." Espio said not saying more than had to be said as always.
It didn't take much for Mighty to guess who the ‘fox’ was. "You guys are going to make me
feel guilty if I don't so sure..." Mighty look at them intently. "So, what have you guys been doing
all this time?"
Espio did the speaking instead of Vector for once. "When you called up and said you were
through with the band, Vector did step for singer... it was a disaster..."
"Hayato?" Mighty asked looking in the reptile's eyes.
"Who?" Espio answered
Mighty looked stabbed. "Just a friend who I haven't heard from in a while. It's nothing."
Espio knew it wasn't nothing not know this wasn't the time or place for it
either. He could get the information out of Mighty another day.
"So just tell me your bank account number and I'll just ring them up for us." Said Vector
picking up the phone.
Espio took it from the croc in a blur and handed it to Mighty.
"I think we'll just crash while you do that half of the paper work, Vector can get us a gig.
Don't worry, I'll make sure he doesn't sign anything he can't read."
"That was a five years ago!" Vector didn't like this subject being brought up.
"I'm just not tempting fate." Espio returned.
"I think Vector can handle it on his own!", Charmy said already being hypnotised by turned on TV.
"You think I’m gonna let him near my account number?"
"Hey Charmy! Did that resturant you mention have any musical performances?"
"Yea I think it did."
"Okay, what the address?"
"Address? I think it was ten buildings down from where Espio asked that weasel and it
had a red see through window."
"I'll take care of it." Espio vanished into thin air, the door opened and closed on it's own.
"....The one thing he can do better than the rest of us. Subterfuge."
"Well, while we waiting how about you practice Mighty?"
"Me? Practice?"
"Come on, ya haven't sung in a while, if you're really that ‘busy."
"Okay, I get your drift, maybe we should try and catch Espio too he doesn't commit is when I can't-
that lizard took my organizer!!!"
"He ain't no rookie."
"Well, at least he won't get at anything personal with the pass word protection."
"Yea, that otta stop a trained ninja for about . . . what? Fifteen seconds?"
At that moment, Tim was just glade he had a book for his journal, As Opposed to keeping it
electronically like Kyle had suggested.
"I might as well make that equipment call."
-Two Days Later-
The lights were high and the small stage was set, with idol singer Mina Mongoose
still MIA/AWL (not that her people would have let her perform in such a place) the
resturant Charmy had found was willing to accept any entertainment . . . with exposure
being the primary amount of pay of course.
Charmy beat his drum, Espio's pick pluck his string, Vector stood behind his scatch DJ
stand once again, and Mighty stood with mike in hand before their audiance.
A one, a one two three four
Once upon a time you could be a bad guy,
And you’d live to see another day.
But now you’d never manage.
Before you be brain damaged
just to think that you can get away.
Team Chaotix!