A/N: My first story, please don't kill me ^^

Disclaimer: I own none of the Chaotix and Sonic Crew-I only own the school, its students, and most of its teachers.

"So let me get this straight- we're going on a mission and Sonic, Amy, Tails, Shadow, Cream, and Vanilla are all coming?"

Vector nodded. Then, with a yawn and a stretch, he said, "Students from the school keep getting kidnapped and found just a few days later, dead. The principle wants us to go there and find the person responsible, since all these murders happen on campus."

Espio watched his boss skeptically. "Wouldn't that seem... suspicious if nine students suddenly transferred into the school?"

Vector laughed. "No, people are being transferred into this school every day, despite the murders. You just have to blend. Besides, Vanilla and I are going to be teachers! Not students!"

Charmy suddenly burst out laughing and pointed at Vector. "You! A teacher! You!" was all the poor little bee could get out before falling to the ground in a fit of laughter.

Vector scowled, then stated, "Only for the duration of the mission. Now come on, boys-we have work to do!"

It was a bright, sunny day when Espio stepped into the front door to the private school. Being sixteen, he was enrolled as a junior, while Charmy, being six, was enrolled as a first grader. They were in two separate wings of the private school.

The school-that's an interesting subject. The school was made of possibly the oldest stone in existence-it was black and looked near ready to crumble. The building was three stories high and there were four wings in all, one wing for the first-fifth graders, a second for the sixth-eighth graders, and third for the ninth-twelfth graders. The fourth wing, according to the principle, was blocked off due to a cave-in of the roof. Upon examination, that much seemed to be true-nearly half the ceiling was falling in.

Then came the two large buildings out back-the dorms. Of course, the school happened to have once been a college, so of course there'd be dorms. Of course, what was stranger than this is that some of the students lived on campus-because they came from miles and miles away just to come to the school.

Espio was suspicious the minute he saw the school, all right.

So, with a great deal of suspicion, he entered the school.

Vector stared at the words in the book, confused. What did ll these words mean? What was "alpha", "beta", and "gamma"? Weren't those robot titles Eggman gave a few of his robots?

Vector looked at the class. All the students were watching him expectantly.

Well, except one student, who seemed to be doodling. He frowned, closed his book, and headed over to the girl's desk. He could hear whispers and giggles around him as he approached the doodling girl, but he chose to ignore them.

The girl he was approaching had white fur and black hair-odd combination, but whatever. It was pulled up in a messy bun, and her eyes were green as the grass. She wore a plaid black-and-green skirt that reached to just above her knees and a tee-shirt which was green with black trimming. Her shoes were black dress shoes, her socks were knee-high white-they blended with her fur-, and her gloves were black. She had a small black dot in the center of her forehead. Covering her eyes, she wore glasses with a brown frame. Vector had a feeling they weren't prescription glasses.

"Excuse me, stop doodling, you're in science, not-music?" Vector was a little surprised when he reached the desk and found the girl not doodling, but writing music!

"U-uh, Mr. Crocodile, I'm sorry," the girl murmured, quickly putting the sheet of paper in her binder. Other students laughed and Vector could swear he heard someone whisper, "band geek."

Vector nodded, then said, "Take notes-there'll be a quiz tomorrow!" He strode back up to the front, picked the book back up, and opened it back to the appropriate page.

He looked back at the students and was silent for a few seconds. Then, he dismissed the class, telling them to take an early break.

The girl he had approached earlier was the first out the door.

Charmy was learning addition and subtraction-something he had been taught by Espio at the CDA. He also already knew multiplication and division. Really, he got everything in a cinch and he was bored. While all the other students were struggling with their work, he simply drew pictures of him and the Chatix-including Mighty, who had left after he met some girl.

Charmy looked around and saw he was the only one done. He sighed, getting his teacher's attention.

Mrs. Hedgehog, a lovely tan fox who was, obviously, married to a hedgehog, came over to Charmy with a pleasant smile.

"Hello, Charmy, is something wrong?"

Charmy looked up at her, his antenna drooping. "Yes, Mrs. Hedgehog-I already know addition and subtraction, I'm done, no one else is, and I'm bored!"

Mrs. Hedgehog smiled sweetly at her new student before replying, "Oh Charmy, some student excel, while other struggle. You just need to be patient! Okay?"

Charmy stared up at the teacher and, after a moment, nodded his head. "Okay, Mrs. Hedgehog."

Lunch time. Espio looked around himself at all the tables. The food didn't smell very appetizing to him, though he knew to some other student it would smell amazing, so he skipped lunch. He had to stay in the cafeteria, however, so he seated himself at an empty table. He pulled out a book on ninjas and began reading.

It was maybe only five minutes later when a voice said, "Excuse me, new kid, but you're at our table."

He glanced up to see a brown-furred wolf with red hair. If you looked close enough, you could see her hair was dyed. Her muzzle was light brown. She wore a black-and-blue corset with a red tanktop underneath, and a red-and-black plaid skirt that reached barely to her mid-thigh. Knee-high black boots with red laces made up for the small outfit. A single chain hung around her waist, and clipped into her shoulder-length red hair was a skull clip. Her eyes were deep violet.

The girl had two companions-one a white fox, and another a duck.

The white fox is, obviously, the girl from Vector's science class, so I'll describe the duck to you now.

The duck was a boy with black hair and grey fur/feathers. His beak-thing was an orange-grey colour, and his eyes were brown. His throat was forest-green. He wore a baggy black shirt and just-as-baggy grey pants. He wore no gloves, and his shoes were black as well.

An odd group, someone would think... if they weren't part of the Chaotix, that is.

Espio closed his book, carefully marking his page. "Excuse me, but I do not believe a table owned by the school can be a specific group's table."

"Well, it is, so just scram," the wolf demanded.

That's when the white wolf spoke up. She sounded a lot more energetic than she did in Vector's class, but Espio had no way of knowing this-he wasn't in that class.

"Holly, just chill it, please. If the chameleon boy doesn't want to move, he doesn't have to!"

"Aww, but Casie, don't you want to sit here? We always sit here!"

Casie, as the fox girl was called, rolled her eyes and turned to Espio. "Excuse me, Sir, but do you mind sharing this table with us? All the other tables have people at them, and we don't exactly get along with the people here."

"Well, I don't mind... as I said, I do not believe tables belong to anyone within a school," Espio replied. He blinked as they sat down, noticing none of them had bought lunch. "May I ask why you don't get along with students here?"

In unison, the three of them held up instrument cases. Holly held a clarinet case, Casie held a flute case, and the duck-boy held a saxophone case.

"We're members of both the concert band and the marching band," Holly answered. "No one likes us band people unless we're drumline, and drumline don't like the wind players. The rest of the band sits at a table on the other side, but there's something about us all that makes them want to avoid us-something that classifies us as freaks, in their eyes."

"Which is?"

Before Holly could reply, Casie cut in with, "How about we introduce ourselves first?"

Espio wanted to hit himself. He'd been asking them those questions, yet he hadn't even thought to offer his name!

"I'm sorry," Espio started, "My name is Espio. Espio the Chameleon."

"Cool beans, dude," Holly stated with a laugh. "I'm Holly the Wolf. HollyWolf. Like HollyWood, just "Wolf" instead. I'm gonna be a world-renowned actress when I grow up."

"I'm Casie the Fox. I'm a musician, music-playing, writing, and singing-wise," Casie said with a smile. "This is Benjamin, but he prefers being called Ben. He's a total artist."

Espio looked questioningly at Ben, wondering why he didn't introduce himself.

"Now, onto what makes us all "social freaks" in the preps' eyes," Holly began.

Casie finished though, "I'm colour blind, Holly is tripolar-yes, TRIpolar, not bipolar- and Ben is mute."

Espio thought for a few seconds before stating flatly, "I don't see how that makes you freaks."

"Exactly," Holly and Casie all said in unison.

"All three of us are good at playing our instruments, though," Casie said suddenly. "Do you play an instrument?"

"No, I meditate."

The three watched him with blank expressions... then smiled. "That would be considered sooo freakish to the rest of the school," Holly stated, beginning to laugh.

Casie smiled at her friend, then looked back at Espio. "Listen, be careful what you say around here. You could end up like us-bottom of the social foodchain, but possibly the only ones with true friends."

Holly suddenly stopped laughing and looked dead-serious. She leaned across the table and whispered,

"And it's our kind that are being killed every day in this very school."

-T.B.C.-

End A/N: Well, there's chapter one. ^^ And yes, this is a Chaotix story, mainly. Not much Sonic & Co. Each chapter will have all three Chaotix members.

Bet none of y'all will be able to guess who the murderer is!