They reached the branch office after a short time, but for the psychic waiting for the results, it was like an eternity. He hated waiting, and how could simple question about the black hedgehog priest be taking them so long anyway? He was now sure the personnel here sucked.

But there was nothing he could do about it, only sit in the relaxing area, reading newspapers, and tapping his foot. Thankfully, Gold was a lot better when it came to patience. She welcomed this forced break and used it to clear her mind.

After two hours, the raccoon clerk, in charge of their request, signaled them she had it ready. Silver tossed the newspapers away, not caring where it fell and dashed to the desk.

"The person you asked for doesn't exist," the office woman informed him.

"What do you mean he doesn't exist!" Silver barked at her, banging his hand against the desk.

Gold, who was standing next to him, gently pushed him aside. "May you be more specific?"

The psychic slightly growled. There were times when he had a really short temper.

The clerk cleared her throat. "I mean, this black hedgehog is not registered in our archive as an agent of The Order." She adjusted her glasses. "We were only able to find out about the gun."

The impatient young man was surprised. No information about their agent but something for the gun? There was something fishy going on!

The clerk continued, "Well, it belonged to agent Blue, who went missing more than eight years ago and is presumed dead." She put a folder on the desk that held the gathered intel.

The exorcist picked the papers describing his senior. The agent Blue was known for great attributions to The Order and was generally considered to be one of their top soldiers.

'How did that black hedgehog get the gun then? Did agent Blue give it to him?'

He had found it unlikely; it was making no sense. Giving such weapon away was breaking the rules, not to mention it was considered treason. There was a lot of stuff the public wasn't aware regarding The Order, the demon hunting part being one of them. Each agent had to take an oath never reveal anything.

While was Silver thinking, a cat clerk brought a new paper, putting it down.

"Here is what we have about the black hedgehog you asked for," said the raccoon woman.

All of them checked that paper. It consisted of Shadow's rather short profile.

The psychic hedgehog picked the paper, mumbling its content, "Name Shadow the Hedgehog... gender male... his weight, and height... age and hometown are unknown... a priest of a D-rank?" He almost shouted the last part, biting his tongue.

All priests in The Order had a rank. The lowest was D, and it consisted of the most members, who were ordinary priests. The highest rank was S, which members were fighting with demons and other unholy creatures on a regular basis, and they were given special weapons. Silver and Gold were both S-ranked, and this silver gun was distributed those of A-rank, and above. There was no way a D-ranked priest could get such a weapon.

"His address is." He squinted, reading it carefully. "Great," he growled through bared teeth, "on the other side of the town." He folded the paper, putting it in his inner chest pocket, and headed toward the exit.

Gold apologized for his behavior and thanked the clerk for her work, then she followed him. Outside they hired another cab, having to wait another twenty or so minutes to get there.

Once they arrived, he thought, 'What a small church.'

The building wasn't the biggest one. It had seats for about fifty people, and a few rooms for storing stuff, small kitchen and living space on the second floor.

Silver knocked on the door and waited, but no one answered him. He knocked louder; however, not even after two more attempts, did anyone appear.

"That fake priest," he growled. At the same moment, he realized this person was supposed to be dead, making him feel stupid.

"Silver," called Gold, who was walking towards him. "He is alive, but he isn't in the town since this morning."

"What?" he barked, turning toward her, as she stopped. "Wasn't he supposed to die?" He quickly took out the paper, reading it once more. It was true, there was no day of death. How could he have overlooked it?

"It seems, he must have survived, even the incident in the factory," noted the tenrec medium; a shiver ran down her spine.

The psychic crumbled the paper, making a ball with his hands, using his physical strength instead of his mind, showing the level of his frustration.

"That. That!"

Silver was boiling. That priest wasn't making sense! He let out a strong snort before asking, "What did you find?"

"I have asked about him to one elderly woman, who was walking by, and he got a letter, informing him about the poor health of his father," she continued.

"That must have been a lie!" He bit his thumb.

"Supposedly, he looked rather ill the past days."

"Ill? Could the priest ended up possessed instead of killed?" Silver quickly snapped his thoughts. He put his hands behind his back and walked back and forth, switching to his thinking habit.

"That may be the after effect of the possession." He shook his head. "No, it doesn't make sense! If he ended up possessed, why leave? This place looks like a perfect hideout. Was there somebody else chasing this devil? Or was the devil afraid to stay in one place for too long?"

Gold was watching him for a while, before placing her own question, "There is still the mystery regarding the silver gun. I wonder how he took possession of it."

Her partner stopped, nodding at her. "And that's just one of many questions I swirling in my head."

He snorted, crossing hands in front of his chest. He kept the gun with himself, feeling it in one of his inner pockets the uniform was equipped with. "Do you know where he was heading?"

She slightly shook her head. "No, he didn't mention it, but he was taking a morning train. I presume he boarded the one leaving between the eighth and ninth hour."

"Alright, let's check the personnel then," he said, heading there.

This time they walked as the train station was about fifteen minutes away. However, the search took much longer, and it was Gold doing most of it, as Silver was studying train schedules. She was also sure he might start a fight as he was impatient and already grumpy. Once they were finished, they presented their results, finding only one possible place.

"So his destination is Green Hill Village, huh?" he pondered aloud.

It was a famous place for its scenery full of green hills thus it got that name.

"That's a small place. So, he is trying to hide in shadows. How funny." He grinned in disdain.

Whether the priest was possessed or not, wasn't important as he considered him as a criminal. It was also possible he was a renegade who killed agent Blue and stole his weapon.

While he was thinking, Gold bought the tickets for the last train heading to the Green Hill Village, which was about three hours away. The train arrived shortly, and they got in. The pair waited for the bear conductor to leave after checking their tickets before tenrec medium silently spoke, "That blue boy hedgehog is with him."

"What?" The psychic jerked his head. "Did you read his memories? You know it's not your strongest point."

He was right about that; she was able to read people minds and see the past of places. The ability to search memories was slowly developed over the time and often brought uncertain results.

"Yes, I'm positive. That man saw the boy and the black priest together," she said with a firm voice. "His memories of it were still quite clear."

Silver rested his elbows on his knees, connected his fingers in a pyramid shape, and placed his chin on his index fingers. After a while, he closed his eyes. When he had no space for walking, he did this instead since it helped him to concentrate.

'Why did he take that boy with him? As a hostage? Is he truly on the run? If so, why use public transportation? To use his surroundings as a live shield?'

The more he thought, the more he was sure that the demon was preparing for something big.

The deep night had fallen on the town, but one station worker saw suspicious shadows moving around cargo wagons. He called his co-worker, checking one by one, getting gradually to the last one. He opened it, shining light from his oil lamp into all corners.

"I told you, it's just your imagination," said the second man. If it wasn't for this, he would have already left a good half-hour ago and be on his way home.

"Guess you are right," the first one answered, closing the door, and together they left.

If this man would just point the light a bit higher, he would notice a figure hidden in the corner below the ceiling. It was none other than Eclipse who jumped down once he heard they were no longer close.

"Damn mortals," he gasped. He turned toward his dust balls, as he heard them making sad sounds.

"I know you liked it here, but we have to move away to fill the quote faster."

Eclipse didn't tell his kiddies how he sustained those injuries. It was rather pointless since they knew he was in bad shape, but he didn't want to say it aloud. Shadow scared him. Meeting him showed Eclipse how unprepared for the big world he was.

'Who had ever heard of mortal having demonic transformation?'

He had no idea how was that possible. Maybe he should have asked his brother Sirius. He knew a lot of things, but that could deprive the small demon of his revenge.

At the same time, he knew he was weak. He had to become stronger, and fast. So he had to move to this new city, far from this place to hunt. Once he had recovered, he would return here for payback.