Shadaze-Partners in Crime 13

Sonic had spent a long, sleepless night, studying the evidence from the scene he stumbled upon earlier at his desk in his GUN office.

He held the mannequin head in his hand, scanning it intently. It's dead black eyes, matched with its fake blonde hair, made Sonic feel...uneasy. He had no idea what this was doing there. Or what it had to do to relate to Shadow.

He slowly moved it around, looking from every different angle. Witnesses say that Shadow and Blaze showed up to the area, and then Shadow started screaming up at the air. This head was at his feet. Blaze looked uncomfortable the entire time, before dragging him away. GUN patrols couldn't find either of them. Again.

Sonic sighed. This was getting to be a bit much. Shadow has a history of erratic behavior, not to mention drug and alcohol abuse. Sonic remembers the time he chased Shadow while the ebony hedgehog was chugging a bottle of vodka. Fun times.

But this wasn't one of those times. It could be that Shadow is going off the deep end. It would make sense. Him and Blaze working together, almost murdering a crime boss, yelling at the sky. It would all make sense.

Could it be that Blaze is using him to her advantage? Or maybe it's....

A click came from the head, making Sonic throw it at the wall opposite of him. The head rolled on the floor, before it played a sound. A garbled, unrecognizable voice played.

Sonic stood up from his chair, realizing he's hit a breakthrough. He marched over to the head to pick it up. His eyes lingered for a second.

He went out of his office, determined. Just what the hell was going on?

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"Call Tails."

Shadow looked up at his associate. He and Blaze had holed up in a diner, far away from everything that had happened the previous night. The 1950's-like restaurant flooded with light, as the sun was beginning to rise. The two were in a booth.

"Do you think he'll be up?" Shadow asked.

"Marine gets up around now. She'll probably wake him up," Blaze explained, taking a sip of coffee out of a mug.

Shadow nodded. He tapped his watch, and waited a couple of seconds. Eventually, an image of Tails, looking a little exhausted, popped up. "Morning, Shadow."

"Tails, we have a problem, we....what's that thing behind you?"

Tails turned around, to look at a giant piece of machinery. He then turned back. "That's a supercomputer."

Shadow was quiet for a moment. "Do I even have to ask?"

Marine then slide into frame. "Nope! We started makin' that tracker 'evice we were talkin' about."

"But then we realized that it would be great to have a little extra power, incase the tracker gets out of the city," Tails continued.

"So we 'ade a supacomputa'!"

Shadow stared at the screen for a few moments. "Ok...anyway, we got the name of the guy."

"Really!?" Tails exclaimed.

"His name is Fang. And he's a dangerous bastard. He's tough, brutal, crazy, and smart. He hacked into the communicator."

"'eally?"

"Yes, really," Shadow confirmed. "Is there anything you can do to find him?"

Tails scratched his chin in thought. He then turned to Marine. "Since he hacked into our communication lines, maybe there's a way to find the spot he hacked into, and then follow that data stream to the source."

Marine was in thought for a second, before nodding in agreement. Tails then turned back towards Shadow.

"Give us a second to scan for his computer presence. We'll send directions the moment we got it."

"Thanks Tails," Shadow said, before turning off the communicator. Shadow then groaned, putting his face in his hands.

"How are you holding up?" Blaze asked, taking another sip of coffee.
 
Shadow lowered his hands with a sigh. "I've got a headache."

"It has been a rough couple of days."

"Oh, no. Not at all. It's not like this is the longest I've gone without drugs, and it's not like a bloodthirsty, jealous maniac is trying to kill us."

"Ok, a couple things," Blaze started. "First, stop being cranky."

"Never."

"Second, I'm not too sure Fang is actually trying to kill us. He might just be playing with us."

Shadow squinted his eyes in thought. That could be true. "You might have a point. But he's going to do a lot more than just mess with us. I can feel it."

Shadow rubbed his head again, before a mug of coffee was raised right in front of his face. Shadow looked at it with wide eyes. He then looked at Blaze, who was holding it in front of his face.

"It'll make you feel better."

Shadow looked back at the cup, before taking it. He took a big gulp of the warm, bitter liquid, and set the cup down. "Thanks."

The communicator on Shadow's wrist bleeped, making Shadow look at it. "We got the directions." He said, as he got out of his seat. Blaze stood up after him, and the two went right out the door.

A waitress then walked up to the table the two were at. She looked at the door, and then back at the table. She sighed. "Another customer that skipped on a bill," she muttered, before walking away with her head down.

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The two collectors looked at their destination from the sidewalk, studying it.

"This can't be it," Shadow stated. "There's no way Fang's in there."

"I don't like this," Blaze said.

The two stared at the building in front of them for a few moments. The abandoned embassy for the kingdom of Solaria. Blaze's former kingdom. The building looked ancient, with moss growing all over on side of it. Cracks appeared in the dome roof.

Shadow looked at Blaze. She was fidgeting, and clearly uncomfortable. "Will you be ok?" He asked.

"I'll be fine."  

"Are you sure? I can always go in by myself."

"No," she told him. "Solaria isn't a part of my life anymore. It means nothing to me."

Shadow gave her a look of doubt, before turning back to the building. The two walked right up to the front door, as Shadow tried to open it. Unfortunately, it wouldn't budge, and appeared to have rusted shut.

"Damn," Shadow cursed, before turning towards Blaze. "Stand back."

Shadow kicked the door open, splitting the wood off the hinges. The collectors then entered the embassy, to find a dark reception room, that looked like it hadn't been touched in ages.

Blaze had to bite her lip to keep her composure. There were Solarian artifacts everywhere. The front desk, while covered in sheets of dust, also had a statue on it. Blaze recognized it as the 'Sun statue of Sol'. She always hated that name.

Shadow walked around the room, taking it all in. He scanned a couple of paintings on the wall. "Why didn't they take any of this stuff with them?"

Blaze, who was on the other end of the room, answered. "The way I heard it, Solaria pulled out of every embassy overnight. They only took the essentials with them."

Shadow looked around further. "This place looks like it hasn't been touched for a decade. There's no way Fang..."

Shadow went quiet, making Blaze turn to the direction his voice was coming from. "Did you find something?"

"Don't come over here," Shadow called, "you won't like what you see."

Blaze started walking over to where his voice was emanating from. She eventually found Shadow, who was staring at something on the wall. She went to stand next to him, only to be horrified at what she saw.

It was a painting of a younger version of her. She was wearing a tiara, and had light bursting from behind her. The beautiful painting was ruined however. Her eyes were crossed out with red X's, and the word 'TRAITOR' was written in bold red paint next to her head.

She closed her eyes, not wanting to look at the mutilated portrait anymore.

"I told you," Shadow said, softly. "You wouldn't want to see it."

"Yeah," Blaze said, opening her eyes again. "You told me."

With one last, lingering look, Blaze walked away with Shadow, as the two continued their investigation. They went down hallway after hallway, searching for any sign of the malicious weasel.

"Are you ok?" Shadow asked.

"That's the second time today you asked me that. That's a new record. You know, from the previous record of 'zero' times."

"Nice try. Are you ok?"

Blaze sighed, her attempt at ducking the question failing. "I'll be ok when we find Fang."

Shadow nodded, before he noticed a stray beam of light. He and Blaze stopped, and shared a look, before heading towards it.

The light was coming out of a slightly ajar door, making Shadow feel suspicious. He slowly pushed open the door, making it creek while it moved.

The room was illuminated by a light bulb that was hanging from the ceiling. In the room was a computer and desk. Obviously the spot Fang hacked into the communicator at.

But that wasn't what grabbed the attention of the two thieves. There were newspaper clippings plastered all over the walls. Most of them had pictures of Blaze, which were either circled or vandalized.

'SOLARIAN PRINCESS MISSING, KINGDOM IN PANIC'

'PRINCESS IS A RUNAWAY, ROYAL FAMILY CONFUSED'

'CRIMINAL PRINCESS'

'CRIMINAL PRINCESS IS DISOWNED BY KINGDOM'

'SOLARIAN KING DIES, KINGDOM MOURNS LOSS'

'UNSTABLE SOLARIA, NO ONE TO RULE'

'SOLARIA DISBANDS, KINGDOM DEAD'

Blaze read all of them, over and over, trying to make sense of it all. Shadow's eyes widened in shock. He had no idea what to make of this.

"My...dad is dead," Blaze stated, quietly. "I...I had no idea about...about any of this."

The two just looked around. Shadow didn't know anything about this either. It must of just happened. There was no heir to the throne, so when the King passed...

Solaria must of fell apart because of it.

Shadow put his hand on Blaze's shoulder, as she just looked at everything around them. She was having a hard time processing this. Shadow looked at some of the writing on the articles.

'YOU KILLED A KING'

'ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?'

'YOU ABANDONED THEM'

'YOU'RE A DISAPPOINTMENT'

Shadow scowled at the room. How dare that vile excuse of a man do this to her?

"Shadow?"

Shadow's attention went back to his partner who was staring at him with wide, sad eyes. Oh, he would do anything to get rid of that look.

"Yes, Blaze?" He asked, trying to restrain himself from...well he doesn't really know from what.

"Do you..do you think he has a point?" She asked. "Do you think he might be right about me abandoning them?"

Shadow's eyes widened in surprise and anger. "No, no he doesn't."

"But-"

"No buts. He's wrong. You didn't want to be what they were making you, so you left. That doesn't make you a bad person. That makes you a brave person."

Blaze smiled, as Shadow's words calmed her down. His thoughts about her, and the sureness he said them with, made her feel at ease.

"Come on. Let's get out of here."

The two made their way out of the embassy, and back outside. The day just turned into night, with the sun just having fully disappeared.

A bleep came from Shadow's communicator, making him raise his wrist. He tapped on the screen, to show Fang's twisted grinning face.

"Fang!" Shadow exclaimed.

"Shadow," he greeted coolly. He then showed some happiness when he saw Blaze. "Blaze! How are you? Did you enjoy my little masterpiece? I made it just for you..."

"Drop dead," she hissed.

Fang laughed. "You know, it's kind of funny that you mentioned that. I'm getting a little bored with just tormenting you. Granted, it's really fun, but I feel like I should be moving on to the main course."

Shadow narrowed his eyes. "Fang, when I find you, I'm going to-"

"Tisk tisk Shadow. You shouldn't threaten people. It doesn't get you far in life. In fact, it doesn't get a lot of people far in life."

The screen shorted out for a second, before it turned on to show Tails and Marine, tied up to chairs, and fear in their eyes. Before the collectors could react, the screen cut off to darkness, as an explosion erupted in the distance.

Shadow and Blaze looked away from the communicator, to see a plume of smoke rising into the sky. To Shadow's horror, that was in the same direction as the kids' warehouse.

"Oh no...." Shadow whispered to himself, before the two took off as fast as possible towards the warehouse.

Shadow couldn't think straight, he couldn't think of anything other than getting to those kids. Blaze was almost identical in her thinking, worrying about Marine.

Eventually, the two made it to the source of the explosion, to see what they feared. It was the warehouse, and pieces of it were crumbled up and demolished. A lone wall remained standing, as it seems everything else about the structure collapsed.

The two, panicked, started searching the rubble. "MARINE!? TAILS!?" Blaze called out.

"TAILS!? MARINE!?" Shadow echoed, as he moved bits of rock and stone out of the way, trying to find them.

Blaze was doing the same where she was at, moving debris out of the way as fast as possible. "MARINE!? WHERE ARE YOU!?" She cried before she finally lifted up a big chunk of rock, to reveal a dusty, and banged up Marine. The young raccoon started coughing slightly, as Blaze helped her out of the piles of destruction.

"That bloke..." She started, trying to talk in-between coughs. "He snuck in and tied us up. He rigged the supaomputa' up, an' then left. Ta' next thing I 'new, the bloody thin' exploded."

"At least you're ok." Blaze said, before turning towards her partner. "Shadow, I found Marine! She's-"

She cut herself off when she saw Shadow, who was on his knees. His eyes were closed shut in pain, as he held the dead body of Miles 'Tails' Prowler.