Sonamy: Part 1 - Chapter 27

       Espio, Charmy and Vector walked out the agency and down their driveway to the end of the street.  When they reached their mailbox, they stopped walking and began to think of a strategy to find Cream.
       "First and foremost, we need to locate Cream in order to place the devices," said Vector, "The only problem is that we don't know where she is or what she's doing."
       "Why can't we just go to her house?" asked Charmy, "Maybe we'll be lucky and find her there."
       "Well, we don't want to play 'cat and mouse' all day.  Shadow wouldn't be too happy about that," said Espio, "Fortunately for me, I know a method that could help us.  All I need is for you guys to keep quiet and let me concentrate."
       Then, Espio sat on the ground, putting his feet together and intertwining his hands with one another.  He closed his eyes softly, like he was going to sleep and took several deep breaths.  Then, after he stopped deep breathing, he remained motionless, almost like he was a statue.  Vector and Charmy exchanged confused glances at one another, unsure of what they should do.  Espio remained in that same position for several minutes, not moving a single muscle in his body.
       After several more minutes had passed, Espio's eyes shot open, as he got up to his feet and began jogging down the road.  Vector and Charmy followed quickly, not really able to keep up with him, but relatively close.
       "What was that all about, Espio?" asked Vector, who was trailing behind the other two.
       "What I was doing was using my ninja-like meditational abilities to locate Cream's exact position and determine where she was heading," explained Espio, as he continued running.
       "That's so cool!" shouted Charmy, "So, what did you see in that 'mediation' thing, anyway?"
       "First off, that's 'meditation,' Charmy," said Espio, as he rolled his eyes "And secondly, I saw Cream was heading to the train station.  She appears to be on her way to see Tails for some reason.  My guess is that he has something to do with what's been going on as well."
       "So, you think Tails is in on this, too?" asked Vector, as he huffed behind them.
       "Correct," said Espio, "The only way we can be sure of what they're up to is to get to Mystic Ruin and get a device near his workshop before she arrives.  Then, we can have a clear idea of what they're up to and how we can head them off."
       Thanks to Espio's ninja-like intuition, they made it to the train station just in time to catch the next train heading to Mystic Ruin.  They were fortunate enough to see Cream and Cheese sitting on the train as well.  They kept their distance from her, but made sure they were able to get off the train first and head her off.
       After a long while, the train had stopped in the station at the Mystic Ruin.  In the blink of an eye, the Chaotix got off the train before Cream and darted out to the forest.
       "Where are we going?" asked Vector, as they entered the luscious green shade of the forest, "Why can't we just head directly to the workshop?"
       "Because we need to keep a low profile," explained Espio, "If we head directly to his house, we might be spotted by either one of them.  Our best option is to keep a distance from the workshop via the forest and run our surveillance from there."
       "But how can we get a microphone in place if we're all the way over here?" asked Charmy, as he hovered over the root of a tree.
       "Leave that to me," said a confident Espio.
       Several minutes went by, as the Chaotix scrambled through the vast, dense forest.  The shade wad thick and rich, but not so thick as to block out the sun.  The green hue from the sun reflecting through the leaves made it look very majestic.  The sweet scent of the forest, combined with the freshness of the flowers and the trees, made it almost heartwarming, especially with the sun peeking through the leaves above them.
       Soon, they came to a part of the forest that was almost directly in front of Tails' workshop.  They saw him from a distance, working on his plane, the Tornado, completely oblivious to their presence.
       "Okay, there's the workshop," whispered Vector, "Now, how do you intend on getting the device in place?"
       Espio didn't answer.  All he did was take a shuriken star out of the wrist brace on his right arm.  Next, he took one of the small microphones and placed it securely on the center of the star.  Next, he began pushing some buttons on the bottom of his left wrist brace, concentrating intently as he did so.  After that, he stood up, faced the workshop and threw the shuriken star as hard as he could towards Tails.  Because his accuracy with his ninja stars was dead on, he managed to aim the star towards a stump that was nearby Tails.  Luckily, Tails didn't notice the impact the star made.  When Espio was confident the device was in place, he pushed a small yellow button on his wrist brace.  Vector and Charmy watched in awe, as the shuriken star, as well as the microphone, disappeared in thin air.
       "Holy cow, Espio," said Vector, "How did you manage to do that?"
       "Thanks to Shadow's recent contributions," explained Espio, "We finally had enough rings to pay for some new upgrades for my equipment."
       "Did I ever mention how cool you are, Espio?" asked Charmy, a giant grin across his face.
       Espio rolled his eyes and took up the second black box that they had and held it in between the three of them.
       "Now that the device is in place," said Espio, as he turned the volume dial on the box to maximum, "All we have to do now is wait for Cream to arrive."

---

       Cream skipped down the dirt road all the way to Tails' workshop, Cheese following close behind.  As she approached, she spotted him outside, working on his plan.  She walked over to him and called his name.
       "Hey, Miles!" she exclaimed, catching his attention.  Tails looked up from what he was doing and waved at Cream, as she gracefully skipped over.
       "Hey Cream," said Tails, as he wiped his oily hands with a clean rag.
       "So, did you convince Amy to come to the Downtown Diner later?" she asked, a smile on her face.
       "Getting Amy to go isn't the problem, you know," he said, "It's Sonic I'm more worried about.  Did you convince him to come?"
       "Sure did!" Cream said, as she smiled her soft, innocent smile.
       "Kudos for you," said Tails, "The hard part's out of the way, at least."
       "It sure is, but we're not done yet," said Cream, "Now, we have to make the reservations at the diner.  C'mon, let's get going!"
       "Okay, Cream," said Tails, as he began walking down the road, "Let's get going to…"
       Tails was cut off, when Cream, once again, threw her arms around him.  She kissed on the cheek again and whispered, "Thank you for everything," in his ear.
       This time, Tails held the embrace a little tighter and whispered back, "No problem."
       When they released, they walked, hand in hand, down the dirt road, blushing and giggling as they walked.

---

       Espio shut off the device and stood up, as he watched Cream and Tails walk down the road towards the train station.
       "It seems they're up to something, something big," he determined, "And it has something to do with Sonic and Amy."
       "The question is 'what.'  What are they planning at that diner?" Vector added in.
       "We'll find out soon enough," said Espio, "In the meantime, you two report this Intel to Shadow immediately."
       "Okay," said Vector, "But what are you going to do?"
       Espio smiled at them and said, "I'll catch up, but first, I have one more thing to do."
       He took up another black microphone and began following Cream and Tails towards the train station.  Vector and Charmy began making their way to Shadow.  As they walked, Vector was getting annoyed with Charmy, bragging on and on about how Cream and Tails make something of a cute couple.