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Chapter 1: Assassination

"So who's the target?" asked the man who stood in front of Robotnik. He was wearing a very dark, black suit and had black, slicked-back hair.

"Him," said Robotnik coldly as he handed a picture to the man. "I want you to kill him."

"That'll cost you more," said the man as he handed the picture back.

"More?" asked Robotnik angrily. "Why more?"

"Two reasons," said the man as he held up his index and middle finger to the scientist's face. "One: I don't like killing kids. And two: I was offering you a discount because I thought you wanted me to kill the hedgehog. I want him dead too, but since he isn't the target, standard price. Plus some extra because of his age."

"That's ridiculous!" shouted an outraged Robotnik.

"Take it or leave it, buddy," said the man shortly. "Call me when you've made up your mind." He started to walk out of the room, but he was intercepted by a large robot with a very large gun trained on him.

"Or I could just offer you your life in return for your services," said Robotnik menacingly.

"Go ahead, kill me," said the man with a smirk. "Good luck trying to find someone else who can kill Sonic The Hedgehog and get away with it."

"And how hard can that be?" asked Robotnik challengingly.

"Pretty hard," said the man. "When I kill him, everyone is going to point the finger at you. You're the first person in line for this job. But I can hide our tracks, I can make sure that whatever accusations they throw at you, you can disprove. All you have to do is deny everything and I can do the rest. You hire anyone else and you're both screwed."

"Fine, you convinced me," said Robotnik reluctantly, not particularly liking the fact that he'd lost the argument. "I'll pay you."

"Good, now I need a couple things before I can handle this," said the man with a smile. "First, I need information on our little hedgehog; a list of his favorite places to spend time, a job, if he has one, home address, a list of all his friends, their jobs, their favorite places, their addresses, stuff like that."

"Here," said Robotnik. He handed a folder to the man.

"Good, now I just need a place and a time to take the shot," said the man.

"Tomorrow," said Robotnik. "He's going to be at the cafe across the street from city hall. I was able to intercept this last night." Robotnik pressed a button and a recording played. It was a recording of Amy asking Sonic and Tails to meet her at the cafe Robotnik mentioned. Then the recording played Sonic's voice, which sounded subtly irritated, saying that he would meet her there tomorrow.

"Good," said the man indifferently.

"Here's a good spot," said Amy as she led Sonic and Tails to a table outside the cafe. They all sat down and Amy took a sip of her coffee.

"Okay, Amy, why'd you ask us here?" asked Sonic.

"Oh, no reason," she said as she took another sip of her coffee. "I just thought it'd be fun to hang out together." She smiled at Sonic, who rolled his eyes.

"Okay, then," said Sonic. "I'll stay a while. Probably a few more minutes. I have some other things to do today."

The mystery assassin opened the door to the roof of the city hall building. He had stolen a city maintenance worker's uniform and a maintenance van. He walked in with his disguise and was able to walk straight up to the roof without any difficulty.

He pulled a disassembled sniper rifle out of his bag and put it together. He mounted it on the edge of the roof and took aim. He saw his target. He saw the golden-orange fur at the table, the smile on his face, the young life in the fourteen-year-old's eyes. The man never liked when his profession called for him to kill a child, and, under normal circumstances, he would have refused the job outright, but he knew that this was a necessary sacrifice, collateral damage that couldn't be avoided in the war he was waging with the hedgehog that the small fox idolized.

The sniper took careful aim. He wanted to hit the fox in the right place. Either the heart or the brain. He wanted his death to be instantaneous. Painless. He didn't want the poor kid to know what hit him. In one blink of an eye, he'd be out. Gone. He tried to aim for the head, but the fox was too jittery. He kept moving his head around. So the sniper tried for the heart. This was a much easier target. He took careful aim, trying to be as accurate as possible. Finding the perfect moment, the sniper jumped on the opportunity and squeezed on the trigger.

"Okay," said Sonic, standing up from the chair. "I think it's time we left." They had been sitting for minutes of nothing but silence. They all were just sitting there, Sonic growing impatient, Amy staring at him, and Tails drinking his coffee.

"No, c'mon Sonic, stay," said Amy, grabbing his wrist.

"Yeah, Sonic, let me just finish my coffee," said Tails, taking another sip from the cup in his hand. He heard the ring of the cell phone he had built for himself. He called it a cell phone, but really, a better name for it would have been "advanced computer". He built it into face of his watch. He would remove the face, lay it on a surface, and press it and a holo-screen and holo-keyboard would pop up to allow interface with the device.

Tails pulled the face of the watch off of the band that was wrapped around his wrist. He made to put it on the table, but it slipped in his grip and fell onto the ground. Then, suddenly, immediately as he bent over to pick it up, a small, loud CRACK erupted out of nowhere and Tails's left shoulder exploded with a spatter of blood that sprayed across Sonic's face and torso. Then Tails's back exploded immediately after as the murderous projectile exited from his body out the back of his shoulder and embedded itself in the concrete. Tails was thrown to the ground from the force of the shot. He felt the warm blood flood slowly across his chest and under his back as it leaked from his wound. He gasped and moaned from the pain. He saw Sonic standing over him, horror-stricken and shocked, panicking, unable to think of something to do for Tails. Tails heard Amy still screaming as she kneeled down by him in the small pool of his blood. He heard sirens approaching.

"Sonic..." Tails choked out through the pain.

"Save your breath, Tails," said Sonic, placing his hand reassuringly on Tails's bloody chest. "Save your strength. I'll make sure you get through this." Tails stopped trying to speak. The pain was too much for him to pursue the ambition to communicate what could possibly be his last words to his best friend. Then he thought of one word that he knew would be worth the pain asking. One thing he had to know, if he could, before he moved on.

"S- Sonic... Why?" Tails asked his brother with a gasp of pain.

"I don't know," said Sonic sadly. Tails didn't see much after that. He blacked out shortly after.

A millisecond after pulling the trigger, the sniper realized his mistake. He knew it wasn't really a mistake, but more of a personal inconvenience. He watched as the small fox across the street started to bend down before the bullet made impact in his shoulder rather than his heart, the intended target. The sniper knew that the shot would probably be fatal nonetheless, but he hadn't wanted to put the fox kit through the pain he would now experience before he would finally die.

"Collateral damage," the sniper muttered to himself as he walked away, taking the bag with him, but leaving the rifle behind. He knew the rifle was clean, but people had seen him walking through the building with the backpack on. He opened the door to the roof and started to walk down the stairs. He stopped in his tracks when he heard a group of rushed footsteps. The sniper decided that now would be a great opportunity to sell the deception. He turned around and walked quietly back out the door. He started breathing fast and jogging in place at a fast pace. He stopped and started to breathe heavily but fast.

A group of police officers and security guards burst through the door and looked at him. He bent over, acting as if he was slightly out of breath.

"I heard the gunshot," he said to the officers. "I tried to get him, but he jumped to the roof of the building in back. He's gonna get away." The officers looked to the roof behind them and then took off back into the building. The sniper followed them at a walking pace and made his way to the ground floor of the three-floor city hall building. He walked casually out of the building and watched as the fox was loaded onto the ambulance, leaving the hedgehog behind. After it drove away, the sniper saw the blue hedgehog run after the ambulance at an impossible speed for a runner and a pink hedgehog get into her car and drive off to follow the ambulance to the hospital. The sniper walked down the street, got in his van, and took off in the opposite direction, off to collect his blood money.

TO BE CONTINUED...

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