ROSIE BELONGS TO ME.

I'M WELL AWARE THAT FANG DOESN'T HAVE A COUSIN. IT'S AN OC I MADE JUST FOR THIS STORY.

P.S. - Whenever you see this: "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX" the story is transitioning from one scene to another.

Also, this is my first time writing a story about Team Chaotix so constructive criticism is highly appreciated.

It was another peaceful afternoon in Mystic Ruins and a purple chameleon, wearing white gloves with black cuffs on them and his violet shoes, was taking a walk on a tree-covered path while chowing down on an apple. It was Espio the Chameleon, and he was taking his break from the detective agency, known as The Chaotix Detective Agency. He continued walking and he eventually crossed paths a wandering pink echidna who was taking a break from her morning run. She had on a blue tank top shirt, black jeans, green sneakers and a white headband on her head. Her name was Rosie. She noticed Espio walking by and decided to go talk to him.

"Hi Espio, "Rosie started.

"Oh hi Rosie."

"What are you up to today?"

"Nothing. I'm just taking a walk and enjoying my break."

"Break? Like from your job?"

"Yep. Remember, I told you I was a detective." Espio told Rosie about his occupation one night ago when her and her friends were throwing a party for Sonic and everyone.

"Oh yeah! I remember! How has it been going lately?"

"It wasn't too hard. I recently completed a case where a business rival sabotaged another business's customers' cars and almost managed to get owner sued. It was about an half hour since then so Vector decided to give me and Charmy a break."

Just then, a beeping sound came from a wristwatch that Espio was wearing. He looked to see that it was now "2:00 pm."

"Looks like my break's over. I gotta head back to headquarters," Espio said.

"Would you like some company with you while you're walking back?" Rosie offered.

"Sure."

The two of them continued walk down the path to The Chaotix Detective Agency.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

About 10 minutes later, Espio and Rosie came across a beige, two-story, raggedy house surrounded by a few trees. It had red, uneven roofs and blue frames around the door and its windows. There was a white sign above the door that read "Detective Office" and another sign hung on the doorknob that read "open".

"So this is where you work?" Rosie asked.

"Yeah. It's not too pretty to look at, but it's something"

"You don't have to worry. I don't judge."

The two walked up to the house and went inside. The interior was a small living room with a saloon-like gate in front of the door. There were two couches in the middle of the room with a small table between them, blue lockers along the wall, near the back of the room, and a large desk in front of a bulletin board where a green crocodile, jamming to music through his black headphones, was. He had a golden chain necklace around his neck, big, black cuffs on his white gloves, black shoes, and little red spines on his back. He's name was Vector. He looked up and turned his music off when he saw Espio come in.

"Hey Espio! Right on time as usual." Vector said, greeting the purple chameleon.

"Hey Vector," Espio responded, "Any new cases yet?"

"Not yet but we can't let our guard down. A new case could pop up at any moment."

Vector then noticed that Rosie was with Espio.

"Oh, and it looks like we have a visitor. Hey Rosie!" Vector said, greeting the pink echidna.

"Hiya Vector! How've you been?" Rosie greeted back.

"Pretty okay so far. What brings you by?"

"I just saw Espio on his break, when I was at on my morning run, and I walked back with him to keep him company."

"Okay. Well as long as you're here, why don't you stay a while? Make yourself comfy."

"Thanks I will!"

Just then, a yellow bee, wearing a orange vest, a black pilot's helmet and orange sneakers, came flying into the office with a small stack of mail in his hands. His name was Charmy.

"Mail's here!" Charmy yelled as he fly in. He flew in so fast that he bumped into Vector and dropped the letters he was holding.

"Charmy! What's wrong with you?!" Vector yelled, ticked off.

"Hehe... Sorry Vector!" Charmy apologized as a sweat drop appeared on his face.

Vector rubbed his face and picked up the letters that Charmy dropped.

"*sigh* All bills today... The landlord just won't back off!" Vector said, annoyed.

"Is that really the only mail you guys get?" Rosie asked.

"Not really. Most of the time it's job letters and Charmy's magazines." Vector explained.

"Yeah, but most people contact of by phone for jobs." Espio said.

Suddenly, a phone rang at Vector's desk, behind the group.

"Looks like you've said the magic words, Espio!" Charmy cheered.

"Charmy could you get the phone?" Vector requested.

"Sure!" Charmy said as he went to get the phone, but instead of answering it, he grabbed the phone from the bottom and dropped it on Vector's head.

"OW! Charmy, that's not what I meant!" Vector exclaimed.

Rosie couldn't help but to giggle a little.

"You better answer it before they hang up!" Charmy said.

"Why you little..." Vector grumbled as he answered the phone.

"I already told you the check's in the mail!" Vector yelled into the phone, thinking it was the landlord.

"Hello? Is this the Chaotix Detective Agency?" the voice on the phone said.

Vector blushed. It wasn't the landlord and he just embarrassed himself.

"Um... Yeah, this is the Chaotix Detective Agency." Vector said, trying to redeem himself.

"My name is Jacque Goldenrod," the voice said, "I own a museum in Station Square. I have an urgent problem I need help with. I rather explain it in person so please come to the Emerald Art Museum as soon as you can.

"Sure! We'll be over right away!" Vector said as he hung up the phone. But the base of the phone was still on his head so he ended up banging his head on the phone.

"HEHEHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Charmy was laughing his head off.

"Aw, quiet Charmy!" Vector said annoyed.

"So what was it Vector?" Espio asked.

"A guy at the Emerald Art museum, in Station Square, has a job for us and want us over there pronto." Vector explained.

"All right! We got work!" Charmy cheered.

"Okay boys, let's go!" Vector ordered.

"Hold on guys!" Rosie said, "Is it okay if I help out? I'm super fast and I can defend myself if we get into trouble."

Vector thought about for moment.

"Well... Okay. As long as you don't get in the way, you can tag along," Vector answered.

"All right!" Rosie celebrated, "I'll do my best and I won't let you down!"

"Okay guys, let's go!" Vector said.

"Yes sir!" Charmy and Rosie saluted simultaneously as they followed Vector out the door.

"Roger." Espio said and followed his followed his team.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The team took the train from Mystic Ruins to Station Square (just like in Sonic Adventure DX) and arrived at the Emerald Art Museum in about 30 minutes. It was a big, one-story, green museum with four, blue pillars in front of the entrance.

"Wow! I've never seen a museum that big!" Rosie said.

"That Mr. Goldenrod guy should be waiting for us inside." Vector said.

"Then lets go! Lets go!" Charmy shouted as he flew ahead of the group and headed for the entrance.

"Charmy, wait up!" Espio said as he, Vector and Rosie followed Charmy inside. The interior of the museum was wide, open room with various paintings spread out on the walls, big cases filled with sculptures and precious stones surrounded with clear glass, and more of the blue pillars with small paintings on them. There were a few people walking around, examining the various artworks. Soon, a yellow, mobian weasel with a black coat, white gloves and red shoes approached the detectives.

"Oh, detectives! Thanks goodness you made it." the weasel said.

"Are you Mr. Goldenrod?" Espio asked.

"Yes, I am Jacque Goldenrod. Thank you for coming on short notice." Jacque said.

"No problem," Vector said, "So what was this urgent problem you talked about?"

"Oh yes. Please come with me" Jacque said as he led the group to the back of the room. Where they stood was a gold picture frame but it was without a picture.

"This used to be the spot of a very valuable painting made by an unknown artist. It was a painting of a Chaos Emerald and it was and it's valued at 250,000 rings. It was going to be the centerpiece of the whole museum. It was here yesterday but when I opened up shop this morning, it was gone." Jacque explained.

"When exactly close the museum yesterday?" Vector asked.

"Hmm... About 11:00 pm and I opened the museum at 7:00 am." Jacque testified.

"Were there any suspicious looking people around before you closed?" Espio asked.

"Not that I know of." Jacque answered.

"Well, were there any people who had an interest of the painting?" Espio asked.

"No. It was concealed by a red tarp because it wasn't ready for viewing yet. The grand unveiling was supposed to be today but when I removed the tarp this morning, it was gone," Jacque explained.

"Hmm. That gives us nothing to go on," Vector said, " Well guys I guess we better start.."

"Looking for clues?" Rosie finished.

"Heh. Took the words right out of my mouth." Vector said with a chuckle. Rosie just smiled.

The four detectives began searching the room. Charmy and Espio surveyed the back of the room, near the spot where the painting used to be while Rosie and Vector inspected the golden frame up close. Espio and Charmy were still searching, but Vector and Rosie spotted something on the frame.

"Hey, do you see that?" Vector asked Rosie, pointing to faint dark-brown marks on the picture frame.

"I think so. It's faint but I see some brown smudges on the frame," Rosie said as the two of them took a closer look. "Wait a minute! These are fingerprint smudges covered in... *sniff* *sniff* chocolate?"

"Chocolate?" Vector said with a confused look.

"Smell it for yourself."

Vector took a sniff of the brown fingerprint smudges and noticed that they indeed smelled like chocolate.

"You right! It does smell like chocolate!"

Rosie smelled the smudges again.

"Yeah. Chocolate... *sniff* *sniff* glaze."

Vector took another smell as well.

"*sniff* Yeah, from chocolate glazed donuts."

"*sniff* With sprinkles on top..." Rosie's mouth started to water a little.

"Okay, so now we whoever stole the painting had a craving for donuts. Not sure it that tells us much though."

Just then, Charmy came a hallway at the back of the museum.

"Vector! Vector!" Charmy called as he flew to Vector.

"Huh? What is it Charmy?"

"Espio and I found something at the back of the museum!"

"Really? Well lead the way!"

Charmy led Vector and Rosie out the back door of the museum to the a spot, a few feet away from the museum, where Espio was waiting for them. He was standing beside a trail of small, brown footprints.

"What did you find?" Vector asked.

"Once Charmy said we should look outside, we found this trail of footprints," Espio explained. "We think it might lead to the culprit."

"Sweet! We're getting somewhere!" Rosie cheered.

"Well, there's only one way to know for sure," Vector said. Charmy, you're the tracker. Lead the way."

"Right!" Charmy said as he followed the footprint trail, with Espio, Vector and Rosie right behind him.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

They walked for about 10 minutes until the trail finally stopped in front of a small, wodden shack with a black roof and brown window frames.

"Well, the trail ends here..." Charmy said.

"Hmm... It doesn't look like there's much here." Rosie said as she walked closer to the shack. It was completely empty with no one home. Rosie turned the knob on the door and it open easily. The interior was fully pitch-black that hardly anything in the room was visible.

"Wow... the crooks didn't even lock the door," Rosie said.

"I have a bad feeling about this..." Espio said, becoming suspicious.

"Come on Espio. Dont be a party pooper!" Charmy said as he flew through the open door and into the pitch black room.

"I don't know. I think I'm with Espio on this one." Rosie said.

"It doesn't look too out of the ordinary," Vector said, stepping inside the shack. He began feeling the wall until he found a light switch. He flipped it on and the whole room became luminated. The interior turned from murky darkness to a small room with only a few chairs, a table, and large, black trunk in the back, which Charmy was hovering over.

"Hey guys! I think there's something in this chest!" Charmy said.

Rosie had a look of disbelief on her face.

"Is that what I think it is?" Rosie asked.

"Maybe. But this seems a little too easy." Vector said.

Charmy opened the trunk and inside was a big painting of a well-drawn, heavily-detailed, green Chaos Emerald with a blue background.

"It's the stolen painting from the museum!" Charmy exclaiming.

"That was definitely too easy. This is making me uneasy." Rosie said.

"Me too." Vector said.

"So am I" Espio said.

All of a sudden, a huge, metal cage fell on top of the area near the trunk, trapping Charmy.

"ACK! GUYS, HELP!" charmy screamed.

"Hold on Charmy! I'll get you out!" Vector said as he ran to the cage and tried to pull apart the bars. However, it was no use. The bars were stuck tight and Vector was out of breath.

"Huff... huff... No good. The bars won't budge." Vector said, exhausted.

Just then, a voice came from outside.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?"

Three mobians started to make their into the room. The first was a yellow polar bear with brown and yellow gloves, a red winter hat, green scarf, and brown shoes. His name was Bark. The second mobian was green duck with a red scarf, white gloves, and red sneakers with a white stripe. His name was Bean. The last mobian was a purple weasel with long, pointed tail, a brown cowboy hat, brown gloves with a metal plate in the front, a brown belt, and orange and white boots. His name was Fang.

"Looks like a bunch of lousy detectives and a pink dame are pokin' their noses where they don't belong," Fang said.

"Hmph! If it isn't Team Hooligan." Vector said.

Rosie was confused.

"Team Hooligan? You know these guys?" Rosie asked.

"Yeah. They're a group of theives that like to cause trouble."

"But why would you guys want to steal a painting?" Espio asked.

"Simple. To get back at my idiot cousin." Fang said.

"Cousin?" Rosie asked.

"You heard right, little missy," Fang said, which made Rosie a little annoyed. "Jaqcue made a whole mess of money with that dump he calls a museum and he wouldn't let me in on it. So I planned to steal his "percious" new painting of his and make him pay me hansomely to get it back. Either that or I'll just sabotage his business."

Everyone just gave him a blank look.

"That... Is the most selfish and stupidest reason to steal a painting."

"Told you it was a stupid idea." Bean said to Fang.

"Shut up Bean! No one asked you!" Fang snapped at Bean. "And I told you not to stop for donuts while we were stealing that thing!" Fang pointed at Bean's gloves, which had chocolate stains on the fingers.

"No fair! I got hungry!" Bean pouted.

Bark doesn't speak but he facepalm'd himself and shook his head.

"Well, that explains the chocolate fingerprints on the frame,' Rosie said.

"All right boys. We can do this the easy way or the hard way." Vector said, cracking his knuckles.

"As if I would let y'all mossey on out of here and foil my plan." Fang said, pulling out his popgun.

"We won't let you villians get off the hook so easily!" Espio said, asumming his fighting stance.

"HYAH!" Rosie shouted as she quickly snapped into her martial arts stance. "Yeah, you crooks are going down!"

"The little lady has some fire in her. I like that." Fang said, turning to his team. "Okay she's mine. Bark, get the croc and Bean you get the chameleon."

"With pleasure!" Bean said, pulling out a bomb.

Bark nodded and cracked his knuckles.

"That's fine guys. I'll just sit back here and miss the action..." Charmy said glumly, still in the cage.

"Sorry Charmy. We'll get you out of there after we deal with these guys." Vector told Charmy.

Within a few moments the fight between the Chaotix and the Hooligans was on.

Author's notes: I didn't know that much about Fang and his team so I just worked around it as hard as I could. The big fight scene will be on the next chapter. Will justice be served or will the crooks get away scott-free? Stay tuned and find out!