Sonic Cluedo

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Sonic Cluedo

Co-Written by Harley Quinn hyenaholic and Froggy22651

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Harley: Nobody has reviewed this fic on FF.net. Whereas I have 12 reviews over here. This experiment to see where I get more attention has been most interesting. It has shown me that FF.net reviewers are lazy gits. Wait, I forgot to enable Anonymous reviews. Well, I still didn’t get any reviews at all.

Froggy: Maybe the story is just too complicated for them.

Harley: Maybe I should have held people hostage for reviews. Well, people, enjoy the story! I know you do at least...

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Chapter Three: Puzzles

While Sonic and Amy, and Shadow and Tails, were off investigating, Eggman, Rouge and Knuckles all looked at each other. Eggman spoke first, "Tails is as much a suspect as any of us. May I suggest that we investigate the garage, which is where he was supposed to be when Maria was found?"

"Fair enough,” the echidna growled, bringing his fists together, "I don't trust that guy, no matter how cute he thinks he is. Besides, didn't he have some sort of grudge against your family?"

"How surprisingly true," Eggman replied, "Yes, Miles Prower was working with Gerald for almost a year. They used to be good friends. Then they had an argument. Miles accused Gerald of stealing the idea for using Chaos Emeralds as an energy source - an idea which made my grandfather even more wealthy, as you know."

Rouge didn't look at all surprised. Most crimes came down to either revenge or money, and in this case it could easily involve both.

"Ah-ha!" Knuckles said, almost sounding as if he thought of it himself, "So... where is the little creep's room, anyway?"

"Upstairs, next door to Sonic's room in fact," said Eggman, sounding smug.

"Yeah, Sonic's room..." Knuckles said, looking thoughtful, or at least as thoughtful as he ever got, "Do you think he might have done it? He was covered in blood when he got to us."

"Yes, and he found Gerald," Eggman said, "He's one of the few people here fast enough to kill both Maria and Gerald in such a short time."

"Yes, but why?" Rouge asked causally with a flip of her hand, "Sonic is known for saving people, not killing them. What motive would he have for this?"

"Well, we were all called to this house this evening for a reason," said Eggman, "I suspected personally it might have something to do with his will. Sonic was a very good friend of Gerald's you know. I wouldn't be surprised if he got a mention. And we all know he's not only got money troubles, but has very little patience."

Rouge laughed. "So you're telling me that you think Sonic committed murder because he was impatient?" The bat smirked unpleasantly at the human doctor. "I realise that everyone is suspect here, but perhaps we should stick to those who are more... likely, hmm?"

"Like you?" Eggman smiled thinly, "You and Knuckles were cut out of Gerald's will because he didn't like you, Rouge. That's motive. Where were you when Maria was found?"

The bat's eyes narrowed to slits, making her smile more dangerous and mischievous as she reached over and lightly rubbed her fingers across Knuckles' chest. "Why, I was in my bedroom, of course. I'm not the type for petty revenge, and I wouldn't get anything of value out of the murder, anyway. If we really want to point at who has the most to gain... why, I believe that would be you."

"Or maybe I just got lucky," Eggman replied, "Besides, you're a secret agent. Trained to kill. Maybe it was your job to kill somebody. With your wings you could certainly get to your bedroom quickly." he glared, "Enough of this petty bickering. It's time to investigate."

"Yeah, after you, doc,” Knuckles said, glaring at the human as he stood near his wife, who in contrast was smiling sweetly.

"Sonic is already investigating my room," said Eggman, "We can investigate his and Tails' rooms. And then the garage, where Tails was working - or so he says."

Rouge stepped out of the doctor's way and gestured in the direction of the upstairs rooms. Knuckles stood close to the scientist, as belligerent and aggressive as ever.

Eggman stood up and walked up the stairs quickly. It was interesting to note that this small action resulted in him being out of breath, and certainly made one wonder if he was capable of either beating somebody to death or holding them under water.

Of course, he could be faking it... Rouge shook off that paranoid thought, saving it for later. First, they had to investigate Tails' room. The boy's chambers were unlocked, and the interior of it looked fairly neat and tidy with a few papers and such spread out on a desk, probably the furious scribbling of the little genius as he tinkered with a new idea.

Eggman approached the desk and picked up the piece of paper. Then he frowned, holding up the piece of paper, "This is a letter from Gerald to Miles," he said, "It seems to be one of a series. Gerald is telling him that he has something important to tell him tonight."

"Maybe the little freak didn't like what he heard!" the echidna growled.

Rouge, on the other hand, calmly shrugged. "That's hardly convincing evidence for murder. Is there anything else?"

"Why not, it's well documented that murderers store vital clues in their own bedrooms," Eggman said, sarcastically. He went over to the window, "Hmmm... Miles can fly. His tails would give him easy access to the rest of the house. If other people's windows were open, of course."

"Do you see any other open windows?" the echidna asked, trying unsuccessfully to look over Eggman's shoulder.

"From here?" Eggman leant out of the window, "It's too hard to tell, and Miles wasn't in here when Maria was found. He was in the garage."

"Or so he says,” Rouge pointed out, leaning against a nearby wall, tapping her foot against the floor.

"Yes, he would be in the garage," said Eggman, "A place with plenty of heavy objects. We probably wouldn't notice if one went missing."

"Well... I can't think of anything better, so I suppose we should look for any heavy tools missing,” Rouge spoke in a bored tone, slowly pushing off the wall towards the door.

Eggman continued to poke at the other pieces of paper, "Hmmm... designs for planes... and an application letter to GUN, applying for a job."

"Wait... what?" Knuckles said, startled, "Since when did that brat ever take military contracts? I thought he was one of those goody-goody scientists."

"Gerald works for GUN," Eggman pointed out, "Or at least, used to. I suppose now he's dead they'll need some replacements."

Rouge frowned slightly, thinking of any possible reason GUN might want Gerald dead. In the meantime, they had a workshop to check out. She led them out of the room and down the stairs, but from there, she had to rely on Eggman to guide them to the workshop itself. Neither of the guests knew the mansion well enough.

Eggman led them to the garage and workshop. It was also very neat - and there was a plane and several cars in there.

Rouge took the tip to a slide a gloved finger along the side of one of the cars, looking at them with an approving glance. She probably was imagining how much money was to be had for selling one of them. Knuckles, on the other hand, roughly opened the newest toolbox and began to fumble around inside it.

"It's all very neat in here," Eggman commented, "It should be easy to tell if something's here that shouldn't be. But it's not so easy to tell if something's missing, especially when you're messing it all up, Knuckles."

"Knuckles, hon, let the doctor search the tools. This is his area of expertise, after all,” Rouge called out to the irritated echidna. Knuckles grumbled and backed away from the workbench.

Eggman looked around, "Very neat," he repeated, "Perhaps too neat. Do you think that Tails was actually working in here?" With this comment, he looked in the toolbox, and laid out all the tools on the nearby workbench.

"Meh, I've seen Tails work, and when he does, everything's a mess,” Knuckles agreed, "He couldn't have been working in here when those murders happened!"

Eggman spotted a large window, and walked over to it, "Miles has quite a good view of the pool from this window," he commented, "Of course, that doesn't ascertain that he was looking in this direction, but he could have, and should have heard something. If he was working here."

"Something does seem off about all of this,” Rouge said, starting to look somewhat worried by the situation, "Foxboy said he was here, but there's no sign of it, and he has a good view of the pool area. This is starting to add up to a revenge killing."

"There may be an innocent explanation for all of this," Eggman said, placing the tools back in their box. One appeared to be missing, but he couldn't tell what just now.

"Or there might not be!" Knuckles growled.

Rouge placed a calming hand on the echidna's shoulder, saying, "But we don't have enough evidence to say either way. We need to search around more and see what the other teams have dug up."

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Harley: Great. I still have about 70 A-Ranks to go for Sonic Heroes too. Next chapter, Shadow and Tails do some poking around, Sonic comes out of the closet, and also things really start to come together. And COME ON! If you don’t like it, tell me why. If you do like it, tell me why!