Well, here's Chapter 14! Hope you like it!

Oh, and just in case anyone's confused, the events in this chapter occur on the same day as Chapters 10 and 12.

"How many of these things do we have now?" asked Mighty, taking the freshly-printed Missing Hedgehog posters from the printer tray.

Espio did a quick count. "With the ones we have now – about ninety-nine."

"One more should do it," said Vector, setting the document to print. "And...done!" He added the newest poster to the pile, then checked the paper and ink in the printer – he felt it was the least he could do, since he WAS using Knuckle's computer without permission.

"Mr. Vector, sir? Do you think this will work?" asked a small voice behind him.

"Hmmm?" Looking around, Vector saw a worried-looking Cream staring at him with an equally worried-looking Cheese hovering by her side. Seeing how concerned they were gave him an urge to pat them both on the head and reassure them that everything would be alright. So he did.

"Now, don't look so worried, either of you," he said. "I'm sure SOMEONE will see these posters and keep their eyes peeled for Amy. We'll have her back in no time!"

"Not necessarily," said Rouge as she entered the room.

"Rouge!" cried Espio, looking up from the pile of posters. "That's a horrible thing to say!"

"Is it?" replied the bat calmly. "I mean, does anyone actually LOOK at missing persons flyers, anyway?"

"Sure they do! Look, we discussed this earlier! WHY are you bringing it up again?"

"Must be the cynic in me, I guess," Rouge shrugged, picking up one of the posters and scrutinising it carefully. "Not to criticise, but don't you think the last part might be overdoing it a little?"

"What last part?" asked Mighty, reading over her shoulder. As far as posters went, it was pretty simple - just a large piece of paper with a recent picture of Amy in the centre, with the word MISSING written above it in big letters and her name underneath. Then he saw what Rouge had meant. At the bottom of the poster were contact details, not just for the Chaotix, but for Sonic and Knuckles as well. "Well, maybe that part IS overkill," he admitted, "but we figure better safe than sorry. After all, at least this way ONE of us is bound to pick up."

"I suppose so," said the bat, putting the poster back on the pile. "By the way, I've put the word out, and both the police and GUN are going to be keeping their eyes and ears open for Amy."

"Good to know," said Vector. "I wonder how Charmy and Big are doing?"

The large cat had been so eager to do something to help that none of them had had the heart to tell him that they could handle things by themselves, so Charmy had agreed to let Big help him call the phone psychics. How anyone could help with something like that nobody knew, but it made Big happy, so they decided not to worry about it.

"I'm sure they're doing just fine," said Mighty as he opened a nearby drawer and rummaged about inside. "After all, how hard can it be to dial a few numbers and talk into a receiver?" Locating what he was looking for, he pulled out three pairs of scissors and a roll of sellotape. "OK, let's go get these posters hung where people can see them. The others will be back any minute, and I don't want them to think we've been slacking."

"But there's not enough sellotape for all of us," pointed out Espio. "You can't divide one roll by seven."

"Five, I think you mean," said Vector. "Judging by the size of that list Charmy showed us, he and Big are going to be busy for a while."

"Five, seven, whatever - the point's still valid. Besides, I'm not sure we'll have enough scissors."

"Maybe there's some more in the kitchen?" suggested Cream. "I'll go see." She turned and walked out of the room, Cheese following in her wake. As she entered the kitchen, she saw Charmy sitting at the table with the phone receiver in his hand. Big was next to him, the list of psychic hotlines the bee had written in his hand, and was reading out each number - as he did, Charmy pressed the appropriate button on the keypad.

So THAT'S how they're doing it, thought Cream as she started opening drawers and looking through cupboards. She tried to be as quiet as possible, because Charmy had started speaking to the person on the other line, but her actions did not go unnoticed by Big.

"What are you looking for?" he whispered as he got up from his chair and came up behind her - he may not have been the brightest crayon in the box, but even he knew it was rude to speak too loudly when someone was on the telephone.

"Espio's worried that we're not going to have enough scissors or tape to hang the posters," Cream whispered back, "so I said I'd look for some."

"Oh. Well, I think there's some in the cupboard under the sink."

"Under the sink?" parroted Cream. "Why would they be there?" Then she frowned. "Wait...how do YOU know what Knuckles has in his kitchen?"

Big shuffled his feet in embarrassment. "I...kinda...got curious and had a little look around yesterday, while we were getting things set up for the party. Only, please don't tell Knuckles? I don't think he'd be happy to know I didn't do the job he asked me to do."

Considering said 'job' had consisted of being asked to stand still and not touch anything, Cream supposed that she shouldn't be surprised that Big had given into temptation and disobeyed. She decided not to mention this, however. "Don't worry, I won't tell."

"Thanks!" hissed Big, before looking over his shoulder. "I'd better get back to Charmy - I think he's nearly finished talking."

He sat down again while Cream went over to the sink. Opening the under-sink cabinet, she spotted a small plastic box and removed the lid out of curiosity. To her surprise, there were three more pairs of scissors and five more rolls of sellotape sitting on top of a small pile of assorted objects. She briefly wondered just WHY Knuckles had all this stuff, as well as WHY it was in such a strange place, but decided not to question her good luck.

Snatching up two pairs of scissors and four rolls of tape, she was about to leave the room when something occurred to her. "Hey, guys," she said, turning to Charmy and Big, who were about to call a new hotline. "Do you mind staying behind while we put up the posters?" (She didn't think they WOULD mind, and Vector HAD said they might be busy for a while, but surely it was polite to ask first?)

Charmy paused with his finger in mid-air and Big looked up from the paper, both with surprised expressions on their faces. "Of course we don't MIND," said Charmy, "but why do you ask?"

Cream thought for a moment - she didn't want them to think that they were being sidelined on purpose. "Well...I mean, SOMEONE'S got to stay behind in case the others get back before we do, and since you're so busy dialling hotlines...um, er, that is..." She broke off, unsure how to finish the sentence.

Luckily, they didn't press her for an explanation. "Don't worry, we get it," said Big. "You want us to stay behind and let the others in, and tell them where you've gone, right?"

"Right!" said Cream, glad that they didn't seem offended.

"No problem!" said Charmy. "We're gonna be here for a couple hours, anyway, so it's not like we CAN do anything else, is it?"

"Guess not. Well, I'd better get back to the others." With that, Cream returned to the living room and handed out the scissors and tape to Rouge and the rest of the Chaotix.

Mighty, who had just finished dividing the pile of posters into five smaller ones, thanked Cream, then picked up one of the piles. "We should probably split up to cover more ground. I'll take the North side of town."

"Bit pointless, isn't it? After all, we don't have THAT many posters," pointed out Vector. "But it's not a bad idea. I'll take the South side - that way, I can buy some more paper and ink for Knux, and we can make some more posters later on."

"Well, I'm going East," said Espio.

"And Cheese and I will take the West side," said Cream.

"And I'm gonna fly around and drop my posters all over town," said Rouge. "Who knows? It JUST might work."

"Right, now that that's settled, let's go." Opening the front door, Mighty made his way outside, followed by the others. Rouge, the last one to leave, spread her wings and took to the air, heading toward the town with the others following in her wake.

About two minutes later, the others returned (except for Jet and Storm, who had decided to go to the hospital and get their injuries treated).

"Well, THAT was a waste of time," grumbled Sonic, flopping down into an armchair and folding his arms across his chest.

"Not really," said Tails. "We DID manage to put a stop to Eggman's plan - or at least we delayed it for a while."

"Yeah, but we didn't find Amy, did we?"

"Well, no..."

"Exactly!" cried Sonic, jumping to his feet and throwing his arms in the air. "Anyway, we ALWAYS put a stop to Eggman's plans, so it's nothing to get excited about! Like I said, it was a waste of time! We're no closer to finding Amy now than we were this morning!" He sank back into the chair with a disgruntled sigh, as though the mere act of standing up had sucked all the energy out of him.

Marine sensed that Sonic was feeling a little despondent, so she tried to comfort him. "Well, look on the broight side," she said, plonking herself down on the arm of the armchair and putting her own arm around the hedgehog's shoulders. "Least we know Eggman ain't doin' who-knows-what to 'er, and that's a good thing, in'it?"

Sonic managed a weak smile at that. "I suppose you're right."

Just then, Big entered the room. He'd overheard Sonic's outburst, and come to see what was going on. "Oh, you guys are back!" he said. "So, how'd it go?"

"Don't ask," sighed Shadow, sinking down onto the floor.

"Was it that bad?" asked the large cat, looking concerned.

"Well, I wouldn't call it 'bad', per say..." began Knuckles.

"Wouldn't call it bad?!" spluttered Silver. "We must have different definitions of the word 'bad'!"

Knuckles ignored him. "Eggman doesn't have Amy. He's been working on some kind of 'Ultra-Badnik' or whatever, and he decided to use US as test subjects when we showed up. But luckily, we dealt with it, so I don't think we'll be hearing from HIM again for a while."

"Moving on, how've YOU guys been?" asked Blaze. "Any luck with the hotlines?"

"None so far," said Big, "but the others went out to hang up the posters."

"And when was that?"

Big blushed slightly and rubbed the back of his head. "To tell the truth, I don't really know. I was busy helping Charmy call the hotlines."

"How can you help with something like that?" asked Wave, raising an eyebrow in confusion.

"More to the point, shouldn't you be helping, instead of talking to us?" asked Sonic.

"Don't need to right now," explained Big. "Charmy had to take a bathroom break."

As if on cue, there came the sound of a toilet being flushed, then the sound of a tap being turned on and hands being washed, and finally the sound of a door being opened. A few seconds later, Charmy came buzzing downstairs. "Oh, hi guys!" he said upon seeing Sonic's group. "Any luck with Eggman?"

"Yes and no," said Tails. "We didn't find Amy, but we DID stop Eggman from unleashing his new Badnik, so it could've been worse."

"THAT'S a matter of opinion," muttered Silver.

Blaze, who had overheard him, gave him a Look. "What's with the negative attitude? We won, didn't we?"

"Yes, but I highly doubt having two of our number end up having to go to hospital counts as good! Anyway, may I remind you Wave was nearly strangled to death?"

Upon hearing that, Big's mouth dropped open and Charmy nearly fell out of the air. "She was WHAT?!" gasped the bee.

"Relax, I'm fine," said Wave quickly, "but yes, that is what happened."

For a moment, Big was so shocked he could hardly speak. Finally, he reminded himself that they faced this sort of thing on a regular basis - except maybe the 'nearly getting strangled to death' part - so it wasn't worth getting upset over (although he suddenly had the urge to do something uncharacteristically mean to Eggman the next time he saw the mad doctor), and cleared his throat. "So...what now?"

"Now?" parroted Sonic. "Now we wait for the others to get back, of course. Then we decide what we're gonna do next."

"But what IS there to do next?" asked Knuckles. "After all, we've already learned that Eggman doesn't have Amy, and we know that's she's not in town."

"He's roight, y'know," said Marine. "Seems t' me that the only thing we CAN do is wait and see if anyone sees the posters and calls us."

Judging by the look on Sonic's face, he wanted to disagree, but was unable to as he knew it wouldn't make any difference. "What do YOU suggest we do, then?" he asked, a little more brusquely than he had intended.

Marine looked a little put out at being spoken to like that. "Loike I said," she said, a little stiffly, "we wait fer someone ta call. No matter 'ow long it takes."

"In the meantime," said Tails, "why don't we make lunch? I'm sure the others will be hungry when they return."

"Good idea!" exclaimed Big. "Let's have fish! We can try out this new recipe I've found - fish skewers!"

"Um, Big," said Blaze slowly, "I hate to disappoint you, but we've eaten fish skewers before."

"But have you tried them with rosemary and parsley? Or covered with honey sauce?"

Silver made a face. "Big, that sounds absolutely - "

"Interestin'!" said Marine quickly, before the cat's feelings could be hurt. "But do ya really want ta cook all that fish and 'ave it go to waste if it turns out we don't like it?"

Big was about to answer when Knuckles suddenly jumped up, hands on his hips. "Now just a minute here!" snapped the echidna. "This is MY house, so I think I should get to pick what we have!"

"Why bother?" asked Wave. "After all, we ALL like fish - at least, we all EAT it - so there won't be any arguments or complaints if we have it for lunch."

"Yeah!" added Big eagerly, pressing his advantage. "And do you REALLY want to give Shadow and Silver something ELSE to argue about?" He got a sharp look from the hedgehogs in question - both annoyed at being singled out - but he ignored it.

Knuckles sighed, getting the feeling that they'd go through with making what they wanted for lunch even if he said no. "Fine," he grumbled, "but no experimenting - I don't have the ingredients for anything too fancy."

Looking a little disappointed, Big went to see what he could rustle up fish-wise.

Charmy turned to Knuckles with a surprised expression on his face. "You don't have the ingredients for anything too fancy? But didn't I see you buying the ingredients for both risotto and poached pears three days ago?"

"Don't you have phone calls to make?" asked Knuckles irritably.

"EEP! That's right!" And with that, the bee darted back into the kitchen.

Mighty finished taping a poster to a telephone pole, then stepped back to make sure he'd hung it straight. Satisfied that he had, he made his way over to a nearby fence, found an empty spot and attached the last three posters to the wooden boards.

The sound of flapping wings caught his attention, and he looked up to see Rouge descend from the sky and land before him. "All done?" he asked.

Rouge nodded in confirmation. "Dropped the last one two minutes ago."

"And I've just stuck up my last ones," said Mighty, gesturing to the three posters on the fence. "Think we should head back?"

"Might as well," said the bat with a shrug. "It's not as if we've got anything else to do, is it?"

It was impossible to argue with that, so the two of them started making their way back to Knuckles' house. As they walked, they were pleased to notice that several Mobians were glancing at the posters as they went about their business. Some even stopped to take a closer look.

"Looks promising," remarked Rogue, pointing over at a telephone pole, where a small group of Mobians were gathered studying a poster.

"Indeed," agreed Mighty. "And to think, you said that they wouldn't be noticed."

"No, I didn't! I asked if anyone actually LOOKED at missing persons flyers."

"Same thing," said Mighty with a shrug. Rouge looked at him crossly, but didn't respond.

They walked in silence for a while, until they spotted Cream and Cheese up ahead. Mighty raised his hand in greeting, and Rouge looked surprised. "What are you two doing here?" she asked. "I thought you were taking the West side."

"We were," said Cream. "But then we were told that sticking up posters in that part of town wasn't allowed, so we had to hand them out to people passing by."

"Did anyone seem interested?" asked Mighty.

"A few," said Cream happily. Then her ears drooped slightly. "But some people just glanced at them and threw them in the garbage. A couple didn't even look at them before throwing them away."

"So why bother taking them?" Rouge asked rhetorically.

"I know."

"Well, never mind," said Mighty, giving Cream's head a gentle pet. "At least some people got the message."

Cream perked up at that. "Do you really think so?"

"I KNOW so." A little white lie, but a harmless one. "In fact, why don't we head back and see if anyone's called yet?"

"You make it sound like we weren't ALREADY on our way back," muttered Rouge.

Mighty didn't answer but started walking again, followed by Cream and Cheese. Realising that she was in danger of being left behind, Rouge hurried to catch up with them.

The rest of the walk back was uneventful until they reached the outskirts of town. To their surprise, a small crowd had gathered around something and were jostling each other for a better view. Curious, they managed to fight their way to the front and were greeted by the sight of Espio standing there holding up a poster.

"What ARE you doing?" asked Mighty.

Espio didn't move, but his eyes darted to the armadillo. "What does it LOOK like I'm doing?" he responded rhetorically.

"It looks like you're just standing there holding up a poster," said Cream helpfully. "Why?"

"Because I lost the rest of my posters, and it's not OK to stick up posters in the East side of town."

"You had that problem as well?" Cream asked sympathetically.

"Never mind THAT - just how did you manage to lose nineteen posters?" demanded Rouge.

The chameleon flushed and muttered something under his breath.

"What was that?"

"I said I put them in the back of a truck!" he snapped, his blush deepening.

"Why did you do that?" asked Mighty. "And for that matter, HOW did that cause you to lose them?"

For a moment, Espio was silent, then he ruefully admitted, "I had a stone in my shoe, and the back of the truck was the only place I could find to put the posters. Unfortunately, I didn't notice that the truck was about to drive off until I had gotten the stone out, and by that time I could only save one poster."

Rouge was incredulous. "So you decided to come here and just stand around holding up the poster, in the hopes that someone would notice it?"

"I didn't know what else to do!" the chameleon snapped defensively. "Like I said, it's not OK to stick up posters in the East side of town."

"But surely you could've come up with a better plan!"

Espio opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, a familiar voice rang out over the heads of the crowd: "Excuse me! Let me through, please! Come on, move it!"

Grumbling among themselves, the crowd parted, and Vector emerged, holding a large carrier bag in one hand. "What's going on here, then?" he inquired.

"Don't ask," grumbled Espio.

"I just did."

For the second time in as many minutes, Espio was interrupted before he could respond. "Genius here lost his posters, and decided it would be a good idea to stand here like a Mobian statue and hold up the one he managed to save, in the hopes that people would actually be interested in what it had to say," Rouge informed Vector, ignoring the glare Espio gave her.

Vector sniggered. "Seriously?"

The bat nodded. "Yup. Don't ask me why. Maybe he's trying out for a new career as a living statue."

"I CAN hear you, you know," growled Espio. Again he was ignored by everyone. Well, almost everyone.

"Don't worry, Mr. Espio," said Cream kindly. "I'll help you out." And with that, she used her ears to hover off of the ground and gently took the poster from Espio (much to the chameleon's relief, because his arms were tired from having held it up for so long), then handed it to a member of the crowd. "There we go, problem solved," she said, landing and walking off in the opposite direction.

The others followed, Vector still poking fun at Espio. "I still can't believe you actually decided to stand and hold up a poster. What were you planning to do if you needed to use the bathroom?"

"Shut up, Vector," grumbled Espio.

"Sure you don't wanna go back to doing it? After all, you obviously think it's the best way to make sure everyone gets the message."

"I said SHUT UP," snarled Espio.

"Maybe we could charge money for it," the crocodile continued relentlessly. "Three dollars to see the poster-holding chameleon, five dollars to throw fruit at him."

If looks could kill, Vector would have been burned to a frazzle by the one Espio now gave him. Sensing things were about to get ugly, Mighty quickly intervened. "Hey, Vector, cut it out."

"Aw, come on, Mighty - it's just a bit of fun."

"Yeah, well, Espio doesn't think it's funny, so knock it off."

"And what's he gonna do if I don't?" Vector challenged.

Mighty was about to speak, but it seemed as though it was his turn to be interrupted. "Vector," said Espio in a dangerously quiet voice, "do you remember that I am a ninja?"

Whatever Vector had been expecting, this wasn't it. "Yes," he said slowly, his amusement replaced by confusion.

"And do you know what ninjas do?"

"Dress up in black and sneak around in the dead of night?" snarked Rouge, before flinching slightly at the look Espio gave her.

"I didn't ask you," he said coolly, then turned his attention back to Vector. "Well, do you know what ninjas do?"

Vector was starting to wonder where this conversation was headed. "What Rouge said. Although, I guess they also disguise themselves and use cool weapons."

"Yes, they do," confirmed the chameleon. "They also happen to be master assassins. Now, I would certainly never go as far as killing someone, especially a friend, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't use my skills for...other purposes. Other UNPLEASANT purposes."

"Are you threatening me?" demanded Vector.

"Maybe," said Espio calmly. "Do you really think you can afford to take that risk?"

Something in both Espio's tone and expression told Vector that the chameleon wasn't bluffing. "OK, OK," the crocodile muttered. "I'm sorry."

"Better." Espio looked slightly more cheerful.

Quiet reigned the rest of the way, and eventually Knuckles' house came into view, the delicious scent of freshly cooked fish wafting out of the front door. Mouth watering, Cream sped up a little and was the first to reach the front door. Mighty would have been second, but for some reason, Vector suddenly came to a halt, reached out and grabbed Mighty by the wrist, clapping a hand over the armadillo's mouth to stop him from crying out in surprise.

Rouge and Espio walked on by, too preoccupied with the smell of lunch to notice what their friends were doing. Vector waited until they were out of earshot, then whispered, "I'll let go if you promise to keep your voice down."

Annoyed, but also slightly curious, Mighty nodded in agreement. The minute Vector removed the hand that was over his mouth, he whirled around to glare at the crocodile. "What was that for?!" he demanded, albeit not loudly - he DID promise, after all.

"Well, I didn't wanna say this in front of Espio," Vector replied, "and I know I was teasing him a while ago, so I'm gonna sound like a hypocrite, but I think he's about to become the laughing stock of Mobius."

"Why?"

"Because I saw someone with a video camera in the crowd."

"OK," said Mighty slowly, "What does that have to do with anyth-" He cut himself off mid-sentence as the implications of Vector's statement hit him. "Oh dear, he's not gonna be happy about that."

"Would YOU want to see yourself doing something stupid on a video streaming site?" Vector said rhetorically. "Think we should tell him?"

"Well, he's gonna find out sooner or later, so we might as well." Mighty's stomach gave a small rumble. "After lunch."

So that's Chapter 14 over and done with. Sorry if it wasn't as good as the others, but for some reason it was kind of a struggle to come up with ideas.

Speaking of ideas, I need some for Chapter 15 that won't cause a huge plot hole. See, while this chapter occurs on the same day as Chapters 10 and 12, Chapter 13 does not, as the beginning of that particular chapter shows, so I need to figure out how to reconcile the events of THIS chapter with THAT one (if that makes sense). So, until I can get that sorted, I've no idea WHEN the next chapter is gonna be.

Don't let that put you off enjoying this one, however. Please read and review!