Sonic Heavy Rain

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.

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.

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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.

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.

So I finally got around to reading and you're really good! I love them!

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?"

I've always love Sonic the hedgehog. This fanfic is so amazing and intense. I love your work.