EDIT - The one time I don't preview and it uploads as a total mess! I normally do because it's happened before! Thank you FFReader23 for pointing that out! I've removed the winking face I placed in my author's notes. Hopefully that will have fixed it XD

A/N - I decided to keep the same update-day after all. Here is the final chapter! If you enjoyed this, you might like my Amy/Espio oneshot I submitted last year!
Tomorrow should, hopefully, see the start of a new fanfic! Pokemon fans might like it! Huge thanks to all who have read, reviewed, faved, followed or read quietly! =D You are all awesome!
Disclaimer - I do NOT own Sonic the Hedgehog or any of its characters!

12 – Warehouse Brawl

The Chaotix, Amy and Clara crouched in a field, watching the closed warehouse door. A wagon was stationed behind it, hidden by a closely knit group of trees and bushes.

"Why are we hiding behind a wall?" Amy asked.

"Because they do it in movies," answered Vector.

Clara glanced at him. "I'm sorry. Are you really detectives?"

Vector growled under his breath.

"Why isn't she chained in cuffs?" Knuckles asked.

"Because we've nowhere to stow her," said Vector. "Normally I'd leave her in my van."

"Ooh!" Charmy buzzed. "Someone's coming!"

The group ducked behind the wall, and Vector peered over through a pair of binoculars. A distant rumble of a bike reverberated in the distance, growing louder as it moved towards them.

"Can you see anything?" Knuckles asked.

"No." Vector looked over at Espio. "Can you get closer?"

The chameleon slowly became invisible and vanished out of sight. There was a slight tap as he vaulted the wall, and Amy braced herself, straining her ears for any sign of what was going on on the other side.

The bike's engine blocked out all other noise as it pulled up on the other side of the wall. Vector ducked back down out of sight and leant with one ear against the wall. As the bike came to a stop, the engine noise died out, and voices reached their ears.

"I told you! You're not having any of that candy!"
"Oh come on. Just one. One bar. One piece!"

The first speaker growled. "Can you shut him up before I do?"

"Just one little piece! A gumdrop!"

"No!"
The shutter rattled and clanked, drowning out the bickering duo. Their voices faded away to a muffle, and Vector took the opportunity to peek over the wall again.

"They've gone inside," he said.

"I think that's fairly obvious," said Knuckles. "And it's them, I'm sure of it."

"It's definitely them," came Espio's voice above them.

Clara almost leapt out of her skin.

"So how do we get in?" Charmy asked.

"I could punch through the door?" Knuckles suggested.

"Leave it to me!" Amy whipped out her hammer and hopped over the wall, raising the hammer in a smooth arc and bringing it round into the sheet metal shutter. The metal was ripped open, sending fragments of it whizzing through the air and pattering onto the floor. She landed inside the warehouse between two stacks of sweet-smelling boxes, facing three rather surprised faces.

"Wow!" Bean the duck gave her a thumbs up. "Nice entrance! But it only deserves a B. Not enough explosions."

Nack snorted and aimed his gun at her. "I'd give it an F, 'cos she landed on the wrong turf!"

"Get down!"

Amy felt herself shoved to the ground. A silver star whizzed over her head and struck Nack's gun, sending the bullet into the ceiling and the gun spiralling from his hand to strike the back wall. She looked back up to find Espio stood over her. He offered his hand and tugged her back to her feet, but he didn't take his eyes off the weasel.

"Pointing yer gun at a girl?" Vector tutted. "Just how low are you gonna stoop, Nack?"

"I thought it wouldn't be long until the Moronix got involved," Nack snorted. "So she didn't kill you then? It's what we paid her for! Oi!" He rounded on a stack of boxes.

Sasha stepped out from behind it, glancing nervously from the Chaotix to the Hooligans and back. She gingerly handed Nack his gun which he snatched back off her and aimed at Vector.

"Guess I need to do my own dirty work, eh?"

"Ooh! Ooh!" Bean leapt from foot to foot, pulling out a bomb. "Let me!"

The bomb arced through the air and the Chaotix parted, knocking Amy into the floor again. It struck what was left of the shutter and exploded, the impact blowing them into the boxes and scattering them, creating a landslide of cardboard and sweets which partially buried both groups.

She pushed herself up and tugged her hammer out from where it had lodged itself in the fragrant mountain.

There was currently no sign of Nack other than his voice as he shouted commands at Bark to hurry up. The large polar bear was trying to dig him out of the mound of boxes. He pulled the weasel free and frowned at Bean.

Bean shrugged. "What? I thought that went quite well."

Vector grunted beside her as he pushed boxes off himself and pulled Charmy back out by his leg.

The little bee wobbled in the air. "I don't think I like those pancakes..."

"Pull yerself together, Charmy!" Vector told him. "I need you to distract that duck while I deal with Nack!"

"Okay!" Charmy span towards Bean stinger first.

Bean let out an exclamation of surprise and ducked, sending Charmy over his head into the brick wall.

This gave Vector enough time to run at Nack while he was desperately fumbling for his gun, lost amongst the boxes. But instead, the crocodile collided with Bark, receiving a firm fist to the jaw.

Chaos erupted in the warehouse as Knuckles and Vector tried to deal with the silent polar bear and Espio and Charmy tried to deal with Bean and his bombs. Amy stood aside with Clara, watching aghast. Never before had she seen so much madness. The warehouse rocked with the explosions from the duck's bombs, grunts and yells rose up from those currently dealing with a mass fist-fight, and Nack stood amongst it all with Sasha helplessly turning over boxes in a search for his gun. But there was no reaching him.

If she could only get close enough...

"Argh! Here it is!" Nack wrenched his gun free from a mound of colourful chocolates and aimed it... blindly at the constantly moving rabble. "Hold still!"

"Move it, Amy!" Espio shouted at her as he dodged one of Bean's bombs. "You're a sitting duck!"
"I resent that statement!" Bean screamed. "Here! Take this! And that! And this!"

A flurry of bombs struck the wall, sending dust and rubble everywhere.

Amy choked as she ran blindly through the warehouse, stumbling over boxes as she tried to reach Nack in all the confusion. The wind left her body as something struck her hard in the stomach, sending her hammer spiralling to the ground. She looked up to see Sasha's leering face.

The leopard grabbed her around the neck and pulled her aside, and cold metal pressed against her head.

"Enough games," Sasha purred. "You've done enough snooping around."

"Why are you doing this?" Amy squeaked.

"It's business," said Sasha. "Do you know how many shops we've beaten? We've enough money to start our own franchise! Soon enough, there'll be a Sugar Snow in every major city, and you aren't ruining it for me."
The gun jerked back from her head and Sasha let out a yowl of pain. She released Amy and span on the spot to find her own gun pointed back at her. The leopard raised her hands instinctively and took a step back from Clara.

"Stop this," Clara hissed.

"You're making a stupid mistake!" Sasha growled.

"You both are!" shouted Amy. "What good does this do? What's the point of all this?!"

Clara and Sasha stared back at her.

"Money, kid," said Nack. "You're standing on money."

She felt his gun press against her back. Before he could pull the trigger, she span round and brought her hammer into his torso. He let out a grunt as he flew back from her and hit the solid wall. She span again, striking Bark with her hammer and sending the polar bear flying into his comrade. Vector, Espio, Charmy and Knuckles stared dumbfounded as she rounded on Bean.

The duck laughed as he skipped back, juggling several bombs like a court jester.

"Sayonara, sweetheart!"

With a flourish, he flicked them one after the other towards her. Her hammer let out a series of little pops as it struck each one and sent them back towards him and his friends. They hit the wall, creating a chain of explosions and sending the Hooligans flying through the air to vanish into a field of lonely primrose.

Vector stood shielding his eyes as he watched in fascination.

"Whoa, Amy! That was some A-class work right there!"
Espio crossed his arms and nodded. "If you want to help us out more often, you have my vote."

"Mine too!" cheered Charmy.

Knuckles huffed, but she could see a smile playing at his lips. "I like to think I softened that polar bear up for you a bit."

Amy felt her face flush and she looked over at the Chaotix. "You... you want me to help you more often?"

"Sure!" Vector grinned. "You've been a huge help!"

Charmy pointed at the two leopard girls. "I think we're forgetting about the bigger picture here."

"Oh right. Yeh." Vector moved over to them.

Clara had Sasha pinned against the wall with her gun. She lowered it as Vector took the leopard's arm and fastened a pair of cuffs around her wrists. He did the same to Clara as she offered her hands.

"I'm taking you both to the station," he said. "I think we've proven you've been using poisons to trick the masses into thinking your sweets are top-notch, not to mention almost killing one of my detectives."

Sasha tutted as he grabbed her upper arm to steer her along, and she kept her eyes on the ground, defeated.

Espio hung back as the others left the warehouse and looked down at Amy. He gave her a smile and reached out to take her hand before following them back out onto the dirt trail. Vector came to a sudden stop as he looked up and down the path.

"Argh! No van!" He pulled his phone from his pocket. "This time I'm calling for a police car!"

...

"Whew!" Vector fell into his desk chair. "I'm glad all that's over!"
Amy copied him as she fell back onto the sofa between Espio and Knuckles with an audible sigh. The traffic was certainly better than it had been that morning since it turned out everyone was now getting the train to avoid it, leaving the Chaotix crammed like sardines between standing commuters.

"What will happen to them now?" Amy asked.

"Well, I can't speak for Sasha. She'll likely get a life sentence. As for Clara, her assistance in turning her sister in and helping us may reduce her sentence somewhat."

Amy felt a wave of relief flood through her. She'd been a little worried about Clara. The snow leopard had found herself caught up in something frightening and dangerous she really didn't want to be in.

"I'm just surprised the Hooligans were behind it all," said Knuckles.

Espio snorted. "What I can't believe is that they roped two girls into their toxic plan."

"I hope the next investigation is less dangerous," said Charmy.

"Don't you worry yer little head," said Vector. "I found a note stuffed through the door on our way in about a missing engagement ring. Doesn't exactly have 'poison' written all over it, does it?"

Espio frowned at him. "Neither did the sweet shop at first."

Vector chuckled and dropped the note on his desk as he reached for the phone. "I think this calls for celebratory pizza!"

"I'll stay for that," said Knuckles, "then I'm going home."

"I think I'll head back now," said Amy.

"Nah!" Vector paused mid-dial to fire her a glance. "Stay! We'll order one you like."

"I'd love to," she said. "But I'm exhausted. I need to get some sleep."
"Okay, okay." He chuckled. "You get your rest. We'll see ya tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?"

Espio raised an eyebrow. "The case is over, Vector."

The crocodile stared at the desk with the phone still held to his ear. He picked up the new note and read over it silently before setting it down again.

"Huh." He scratched his jaw then finished dialing the phone.

Amy stared at him for a moment then pushed herself from the seat. "I'll be seeing you then. You know where I am if you want me."

"Amy?"

She froze at the door and looked back at Vector. He wagged an envelope at her.

"Your pay cheque," he said.

"Oh! Thank you." She took it and popped it in her bag, then glanced around at the others in the room with a smile. "Good bye."

"Bye, Amy!" shouted Charmy over Knuckles' more quiet farewell.

Vector waved her off and started talking into the phone.

She let the door close behind her and trotted down the stairs. When she got out into the street, the door faltered behind her as Espio slipped out and closed it quietly.

"I thought you were ordering pizza?" she asked.

"I'll be back in time for that." He turned to her and smiled. "You didn't think I was going to let you walk back on your own did you?"

She felt her face heat up and looked away from him.

He placed an arm around her shoulders and led her away from the office. A smile spread across her face and she moved into him.

"I've really enjoyed helping you," she said.

"I think we've all enjoyed having you around."

"Well... if you need anything else," she looked up at him, "let me know."

He made a thoughtful noise and paused as he checked the road was clear before steering her across it.

"I think there is one thing." He flashed her a smile. "I believe I was on a date with the wrong girl."

She laughed.

"What are you doing next Saturday?" he asked.

"Nothing."

He closed his eyes and smiled. "Then I think I can pick you up at eleven and we can have a nice day out."

She grinned. "I look forward to it!"

They reached her gate and he stopped to open it. "Here we are. Nice and safe, and I can be back in time for pizza."

"Thank you." She gave him a small smile. "Good night."

She thought that might be it. A quick goodnight and see her through the door, but instead he moved over to her and placed his hand on her waist, pulling her towards him. His lips pressed against hers, stirring up flutters in her stomach again. She reached up and placed her arms around his neck, returning his kiss. When he pulled apart from her, he brushed his hand over her quills and took a step back.

"Good night." He gave her a smile and moved away towards the traffic signal.

Her legs had become jelly. She had to take a moment to steady herself on the gate. When her strength had come back, she fumbled for her card key and almost skipped over to the door.

A quick text to Cream satisfied the rabbit that she'd talk to her tomorrow. Then she remembered all the bugs in her house. Maybe she could enlist Cream and Cheese to help her find them and remove them all, although they would likely not be active at the moment.

After a quick meal, she fell back into her bed and was just dozing off to sleep when her phone beeped. She groggily picked it up and saw the name 'Espio' across her screen.

Her heart flipped into her throat and she sat bolt upright as she read the message through a second time.

'Vector says we need a girl's help with this new case. See you Monday, Detective Amy.'

...

I hope you enjoyed! =D Please R&R!