Murder At The Skyship Lounge

Prologue

Dusk slowly became night and a thick darkness shrouded in fog fell. A crow flew low, sweeping over the darkening town of Venio, as Ryuzaki stumbled down the street, everything blurry and swimming in his eyes as his head pounded and he almost fell for the third time. The black and blue hedgehog looks up in time to catch the shining black feathers and laughed slightly, his drunken mind making him grin darkly at the bird. "Ah little crow, wanna be my dinner? I'm awfully hungry and I don't care if you're a sign of bad fortune or not," he said as he lunged, but ended up falling over as the bird gave a mocking caw of laughter before lifting off with its wings. Annoyed at being laughed at by a bird, Ryuzaki got up and shook his fast at the sky before continuing on to the Skyship Lodge where he stayed. However, tonight, he decided, instead of going in to sleep off the headache, he would walk around a bit more and see if he could find anything else interesting to do. Skulking around the building so he wouldn't get harassed for drinking so much if someone caught him, he tripped over a black form and landed in a puddle of water. After cursing, he stood up and turned to kick whatever he fell over, and found the dead form of Conker, the blue fox from the arcade, laying on the ground, the puddle he fell into being blood. Normally, he would walk away with a shrug, but so he didn't get blamed and harassed again he rushed into the Lodge and told everyone what he saw.

Chapter 1 - Enter the Jad

"It's not that I don't care, he was a cool guy when he wasn't being a prick or hiring terrible partners for his business," Killian said harshly, dressed entirely in black simply because he always did and not for respect of the funeral, "I just firmly despise funerals. Grieving isn't something I do like most and now I have to sit here and look like an asshole because I don't cry or be sad or whatever." Jad rolled his eyes slightly, tired from the terrible night's sleep, the purple wolf's words barely registering in his mind. Three days ago Ryuzaki busted into the lounge, as drunk as he was when he left, and told everyone to get outside. The mutilated body of his old friend, Conker, lay in a mixture of mud and blood, his eyes staring lifelessly towards the street. Ever since then, Jad hadn't managed to get any sleep at all and spent his time helping to prepare the funeral since no one else either knew what to do or cared to do it.

Jad passed his hand over his face, rubbing his eyes to try and keep them open and sighing, "Yeah, I remember, emptiness not sadness, you've mentioned it before. Also, why blame Conker for CT, yeah he did hire the guy but Sonic Zone was failing and the arcade needed someone to help out. Would you have preferred he picked you? Or better yet, how about Coza?" Killian glared at him for a moment, then shook his head and shrugged. Exactly the effect Jad was hoping for, since now he could concentrate on staying awake. Looking around, everyone appeared to be in black, though not everyone was mourning. Shirou and SH looked genuinely sad, Sazie was in tears, and Cozuka was a bit off course for how he typically acted. Aside from them, Ryuzaki looked bored and Derek didn't seem phased at all, Whynde wasn't even present and for some reason Marko decided he would speak on Conker's behalf so he we staying calm and even. Pok stood off to the side and the common customers of both the Skyship Lounge and Sonic Zone Arcade all sat on bleachers in the back where CT could try and comfort them.

Something wasn't right with all of this, something seemed very off with this entire situation. The moment was almost surreal, like none of this really even existed and any moment he would wake up and walk to the arcade before work to find Conker grinning about his new half baked business scheme that everyone knew he would never really finish. However, everyone knew Conker and had some special connection to him, because without him the Skyship Lounge wouldn't even exist, but for some reason it felt like someone here was hiding something. Whatever it was, Jad decided he would get to the bottom of it once he got some sleep. For the moment, he needed to lay down, and so he left halfway through the funeral, giving his blessings to the deceased and slipping out without notice so he could return to his room behind the bar and sleep. Stripping down and putting pajamas over his pink and yellow fur, he stretched and checked the mirror. He would have to get to the bottom of this quickly so no one else died. The fox laid down on his bed and almost instantly fell asleep, a cold and dark nightmare awaiting him.

Chapter 2 - Order of the Fox

The alarm rang, startlingly loud at first, causing Bruce to leap out of bed. Slamming the off button, he groans as he rubs his eyes. Dreams of a strange world he was the star of flickered in his half asleep mind before he finally managed to come back to reality. Stumbling over to his closet, he began to pull out his uniform for work before stopping. Today was Saturday, he didn't have work on Saturday, but he did have something important to go to. Flattening his ears back in annoyance, he realized he set his alarm wrong and he was late for the meeting. The red fox quickly tossed on some clothes, brushed his teeth, and dashed out the door.

Dressed in a simple yellow shirt and blue jeans, his fluffy tail blown back by how fast he was running, he dashed down the streets towards the meeting house. A bright neon sign sat atop the building, advertising the best club for foxes of all kinds, the order of the fox. Some of the DJ's special blend, the best of the Xarishro, soaked through the doors and for a minute Bruce stopped to listen to the deep instrumental, feeling much calmer and relaxed. He decided it was better not to interrupt, instead going around to the back door where he could pop in unnoticed and slip off to the room everyone would be in. He saw the shadow of someone outside smoking, the dark alley hiding the face of the man. "Hey! Sorry I'm late, issue with work!"

The man turned to him slowly, his face dimly illuminated by the cigar in his mouth. The fox had a scar over one eye, a long nose, and pink fur. Squinting, Bruce realized he was wrong, and only half of it was pink while the other half was yellow. Bruce disliked smoking, but he decided to keep his mouth shut since he was in a hurry. He began to walk to the door and open it when a sharp pain arced through his body and groaning from the injury, he slid against the door slowly, feeling a hot, sticky fluid running down his back.

The mysterious fox grinned cruelly, reveling in the damage done to Bruce. He leaned in slowly and twisted the knife, covering his mouth before he could scream in pain. "You should be more careful, never know when a stranger has something long and hard to shove up inside of you." He laughed maniacally as he slowly pulled the knife out of him. "This is only the beginning, that's two of you down. Once I've killed the rest of you, no one will ever get on my way again."

Bruce groaned, whimpering on the ground as his blood poured out, pooling around his body. His voice came out broken, a whisper, "Why? Why me? What did I ever do to you?" His vision began to fade as he looked up towards his attacker, grabbing at his ankle, unsure of what to expect.

"Because, you were in the way. You may have left a long time ago, but everyone from Sonic Zone will die, proving me to be the best, the strongest, and most importantly, the smartest!" The mysterious fox begins to walk away, knowing his victim was unconscious before he even finished speaking. As he walked, he realized some of his fur may have been left on Bruce's hands. He glances back for a second, then grins and shrugs as he walks away.