Somewhere, deep in the jungles of Bygone Island, one of the most—wait, nix that; make that the most dangerous and most powerful villain on the entire island… was standing before a blue figure. His crimson eyes, filled to the brim with pure hatred. It was none other than… pause for dramatic effect… Shadow The Hedgehog!

"Sonic." Shadow said to the blue figure before him, his voice filled with absolute scorn. "I have spent months studying you and training for the day when I would finally finish you off. And now that I have reached peak physical and mental prowess, all that I have to say is… there's no point in fighting you now! I mean, look at you."

Shadow was talking to a wooden dummy of the beloved hero, Sonic the Hedgehog.

"In the past, you were someone worth fighting. For a time ever since the incident, I've wanted nothing more than your very destruction, but what's the point now? You have absolutely nothing that can rival me. I mean, sure, you've still got your speed and some agility, but that's it! You couldn't possibly match me in terms of intellect, power, skill, and maturity! The only ones you could possibly fall back on for assistance who have those qualities are you friends, but let's face it, they're no more worth destroying than you!"

Shadow started to picture different scenarios with each of Sonic's friends. He imagined himself and Tails in the middle of a heated chess match.

"Tails could probably match me in terms of intellect…"

Shadow won the chess match, but instead of Tails holding his head in defeat, he just flew over and shook his hand.

"… but he's just a child. Far too nice…"

Tails and Shadow then hear something and turn to see Sonic, calling them over for a game of beach volleyball.

"… not that you're much better."

Shadow imagined himself and Knuckles in the middle of a heated bench-pressing competition, both of them lifting at least one-thousand pounds and counting each press.

"Knuckles could definitely match me in terms of power…"

Knuckles lost count quite easily. In the process of trying to figure out what number came after what number, he lifted a finger to his chin, resulting in the weights on one side to pull down until the tilt caused them to fall off and onto Shadow's face, angering him more. Then, he forgets why he's counting and notices Sonic and Tails playing volleyball. He rushes over to join them.

"… but he's an idiot."

Shadow imagined himself and Sticks maneuvering through the jungle on vines and tree branches.

"Your friend, Sticks, might be able to match me in terms of skill…"

Shadow has stopped when he noticed Sticks yelling at a tree, causing him to face-palm.

"… but she's… well, nuts."

Shadow imagined himself standing next to Amy.

"Amy would most definitely match me in terms of maturity…"

Shadow turns to face her only for the both of them to shrug their shoulders.

"… but you can't destroy your enemies with maturity."

Shadow then gets in a fisticuffs position while Amy brings out her hammer.

"Then again, she does have that hammer of hers that could probably match me in terms of power…"

The two of them were about to fight when Amy suddenly caught sight of something behind Shadow and ran passed him.

"…but then again, she's still…

Shadow dropped his jaw when he saw that she ran right into a store that was selling Fuzzy Puppies merchandise. His only response was a face-palm.

"… her."

Shadow then brought himself back to reality once he was done.

"Not one of them is even worth acknowledging as a rival. This wooden practice dummy stands more of a chance at hurting me!"

Shadow then kicked his Sonic shaped practice dummy so hard that he managed to kick it into a tree about three feet away. It hit the tree so hard that it dropped a single coconut that was hanging over Shadow's head.

"Oof!" He said when the coconut made contact. "Hm?"

Shadow responded by looking up just in time to see even more coconuts fall on him and completely cover him from head to toe in coconuts. A good shake of his head later and Shadow's head had emerged from the pile of coconuts.

"See?!" Shadow used his own strength to force all of the coconuts off of him. "How can I be a proper evil supervillain, without a proper hero to be my arch-enemy and greatest rival?! Grrrr!"

GRRRRUMMMBLE

Shadow's angry ranting was interrupted by the grumbling sound coming from his stomach.

"Hmph, ranting sure makes a hedgehog hungry. I'm not even going to bother running home for food. I'll just grab a hamburger from town."

Shadow ran quickly through the village until he had arrived at Meh Burger. He soon saw a little walrus child standing beside him holding a lollipop. Shadow then grabbed the lollipop and snatched it away from the child.

"Hey!" Said the child.

"Grr!" Shadow pulled a fierce face, causing the child to scream and run away crying. "(sigh) Even something as low as taking candy from children has lost its spark."

He wasn't in the mood for candy anyway, so he just dropped it into the hand of some random stranger and walked away. When the stranger noticed the candy in his hand, the walrus child had returned with his mother who wasn't all that pleased to see the boy's lollipop in someone else's hand. He laughed nervously as the boy's mother looked as though she was about to bring a world of hurt down upon him. While the stranger was taking a beating, Shadow was waiting in the back of the line, but he didn't feel like wasting any more time than was necessary waiting in line, so he just teleported to the front.

"Hey!" Said another random stranger.

"Grr!" Shadow did the same thing that he did to the walrus child.

"Uh, n-never mind." The stranger said nervously.

"Welcome to Meh Burger. Can I take your order, sir?" Shadow turned around when he heard Dave the Intern speak. "Oh! It's you. Mr. I'm-so-cool-because-I-stand-in-the-corner-while-everyone-else-has-fun. You know, if standing in a dark corner while everyone else has fun is cool, then I must've been the coolest guy at my Junior Prom. I know I've already said that before, but I just wanted to say it to your face so that you would know that that isn't cool."

"The only reason it isn't cool when you do it is because you're a loser. Besides, I didn't even bother going to my Junior Prom, and girls still constantly asked me to dance throughout the night." Dave stood there, stunned for a moment before Shadow spoke again. "I'll have a Meh Burger with extra ketchup, mustard and no pickles. If I see so much as a single pickle on my burger, you'll surely regret it… Oh, and medium soda."

Dave, still slightly stunned, went on to put his order together. Once it was all put together, Shadow took his tray and walked over to get a seat. All of the tables were filled except for one, which had a single customer sitting at it. She was a female bandicoot with a red hairband and who appeared to be eating a Meh Burger with a medium soda, same as him. Shadow didn't like the company of people, but he didn't order his meal to-go, and since the table only had one person at it, he decided to just eat there anyway. And so, Shadow approached the table, gaining the attention of the one sitting at it.

"Normally I wouldn't eat such filth, (sigh) but I'm not feeling quite myself today, so I thought some comfort food might help. I also don't particularly like people, but this is the only table left available, so I'm sitting here whether you like it or not."

The girl didn't respond. She just kept chewing her food until she finally swallowed.

"There's no more chairs. So, good luck with that." She said in a casual manner.

Shadow's only response was putting his tray of food down, walking over to the table behind him, grabbing and taking a chair from right under another costumer, causing him to fall down, and walking back to the table.

"Hey!" Said the costumer, getting up.

Shadow didn't even have to growl at him. He just gave him a look and that was enough to scare him into turning around, sitting down, and eating on the floor while everyone else at his table just kept their eyes on their own plates. Shadow turned back toward "his" table, placed "his" chair down in front of his food, and sat in it.

"Crafty." Said the girl as Shadow was about take a bite out of his burger.

Shadow eyed her for a moment as she just casually ate her food.

"Don't talk to me." He told her.

"Alright, I won't."

Shadow was—once again—about to take a bite when he started talking this time.

"You ever feel like you have no purpose?" He said, feeling a need to vent. "I mean, I've been spending most of my time preparing for the day when I would finally challenge my arch-enemy and greatest rival to an epic battle to the death, but now that I'm officially ready, I finally realize that there is no point!"

Shadow threw his burger onto his tray while the girl kept eating hers. She swallowed before speaking.

"Why?"

"Because he's an incompetent fool. In the past, he could barely keep up with me, but now I've gotten stronger, faster, smarter. All this time, I've been honing my skills, and what has he been doing all of this time? Relaxing on the beach! Even with the help of his so-called 'friends' he couldn't possibly match me, so why even bother?! What's the use of a supervillain without a self-righteous hero to battle to the death with?"

Once again, Shadow reached for his burger and was about to take a bite, but was interrupted by the girl speaking to him.

"I know what you mean." Shadow stopped and put his burger down when she started speaking. "My family used to pride itself on defending this island, despite the lack of recognition, but now that the greatest threat to the island is gone, there isn't really any need for protection. So now our ancient defense mechanisms are just collecting dust and we're all just trying to live normal lives. But… to be honest, living a normal life is boring! I want to fight evil and protect this island from said evil! I want to risk life and limb for the sake of my home…! (sigh) But what's the use of a hero without a maniacal supervillain to do battle with?

I know what you must be thinking; 'What about that evil Dr. Eggman?', right?"

"'Eggman'?! You've got to be kidding me! He's nothing but a…"

"I mean, I know that he's evil and all, but to be honest, he's just a…"

"… crazy, incompetent, buffoon!" They both said in unison.

When they both noticed this, they both stared at each other for a moment and smiled.

"Finally, someone I can relate to." Shadow said as he finally took a bite out of his Meh Burger only to spit it out again, look underneath the bun, and drop the whole thing on the floor, next to him. "Now if you'll excuse me, I've gotta go and destroy the imbecile that put pickles on my burger."

"Forget it." She said, grabbing his arm before he could walk over to the cash register. "How about I just buy you a new one?"

"Huh, I do like the idea of free food."

Perci smiled as she released his arm.

"My name's Perci. What's yours?"

"I am Shadow."

After Perci paid for Shadow's second burger, she suggested that they leave, which Shadow agreed to. They were then walking on the outskirts of town, near some ancient technology.

"So, you've been preparing for an epic battle against Sonic, huh?" Perci asked, to which, Shadow nodded in response. "Why?"

"It's a long and personal story."

Perci looked around and got an idea. She approached a small rock that was sitting across from an oblong-shaped rock about the size of a hedgehog and sat down on the small rock. She then gestured to the oblong rock. It didn't take long for Shadow to figure out what she wanted.

"Oh, no! I refuse to partake in such a useless activity, and I most definitely have no desire to speak of such a tragic time with you!"

Almost a couple of hours later, Shadow was lying down on the oblong rock while Perci was listening to his deep yet intense story.

"And that's basically the whole story." He said.

"Amazing!" Said Perci. "I had no idea you and Sonic had such an intense history!"

"I've been plotting his destruction ever since, but now he's hardly worth giving a sideways glance to."

"Yeah. I mean, he's still a hero in some ways, but he seems to have lost most what it really means to be one."

"Exactly!" Shadow sat up straight to punctuate his statement. "He used to be a metaphorical wall in my path that I have to smash through. But now, he's nothing more than a metaphorical stump."

"Yeah, and my family is nothing more than an… ordinary family now that there's no huge threat to the island."

"Huh, you must feel so useless."

"Heh, took the words right outta my mouth."

For a moment, they were silent, occasionally look back at each other. Suddenly, Shadow spoke up again.

"You know… I'm quite interested in those 'ancient defense mechanisms' you were talking about." This got Perci's attention. "Could you show them to me?"

Perci smiled again.

"Sure." She said, standing up and walking over to an old tower-like device with a hoop at the top. "Over here."

Shadow followed her to the tower device that was just barely taller than he was.

"This is a proximity triggered, laser tower. If an enemy gets too close, a laser will fire from the very top of the tower with pin-point accuracy."

"Fascinating." Shadow smirked at the thought of the kind of destruction it could do to an enemy. "How powerful is it?"

"Strong enough to shoot a jumbo jet out of the sky."

"How many shots a minute?"

"Oh! W-well… um… only ten."

Shadow stopped smirking at this and looked at her with one eyebrow raised.

"I guess since these haven't been used in so long, they may be in need of an update." Said Perci.

Shadow turned back to the tower, thinking.

"Does this thing have an access port?"

"Well, sure. Why?"

"Show it to me and I'll show you."

"Hm, opening up a dangerous defense weapon, allowing an evil supervillain access to its vital components… I can see absolutely no way that this can end badly… for me."

With that, Perci proceeded to show Shadow the access port and open it up, revealing all of the device's components.

"Hmm," said Shadow, "maybe if I…"

Shadow then reached into the machine and began doing… something with it. All while Perci watched, intently.

"Well," Shadow said after he finished, closed the port, and dusted off his gloved hands, "that should do it. Your weapon can now shoot up to a hundred shots per minute."

"Whoa! Seriously?!"

"Yes."

"Wow, that's… pretty amazing."

"Although, now that I think about it, that was pretty useless since it serves absolutely no functional purpose, whatsoever."

"Yeah, I guess so. Still, thanks."

Shadow didn't respond right away, but after a minute, he smirked.

"I don't suppose there are any more?"

"Sure. Follow me. There's a lot to see."

Shadow gladly followed her to the next defense machine. So far he had seen defensive measures for all kinds of dangers, now merely collecting dust. Most of the weapons they came across, Shadow felt the need to upgrade them. Perhaps it was his inner need to destroy, or it could be that he was enjoying spending time with someone who actually gets him, or it could be some strange outside force making him do so just to move the story along… Eh, why not all three? Every now and then, they would pass some villagers. Shadow would do something to them like pickpocket, steal from them in plain sight, or knock them down, and Perci would return to them what Shadow had stolen when he wasn't looking (making Shadow frown at the sight when he finally noticed) or pick them back up and dust them off. After about a few hours, the two of them were on the beach in front of a large structure.

"And this is a launch station for the defense balloons that circle the island. They're made to defend against dangerous intruders."

"Perci, these machines are truly remarkable."

Perci couldn't help but blush at the sound of his admiration.

"Thanks, Shadow. And you're pretty remarkable yourself. What, with all of those upgrades you made to most of the weapons on the island."

Looking at her blushing face, Shadow had to admit that Perci was actually rather… attractive.

"You know," Perci continued, "since you and I seem to have no purpose… maybe we could… I don't know, um… find something else to occupy our time."

Shadow's face turned back into a frown.

"Perci, your family has spent far more time than me working on adjusting to a new life-style, but I have spent months working to perfect my techniques so that I could defeat my enemy, and now I realize that if he isn't worth my time, than I do need to find a new purpose in life. But I fear it may not be here on this island."

Perci didn't like what she was hearing. It sounded as though Shadow was planning to leave. She had come to enjoy the time they spent together, albeit how short it was, bonding over her family's ancient weaponry, upgrading, and just chatting. She enjoyed when he would perform evil acts just so that she could correct them. She didn't want him to leave. It was at that moment that she had an idea.

"Just out of curiosity, what kind of enemy are you looking for?"

"Oh, just someone who could match me in terms of power, speed, agility, skill, and maturity." Shadow counted his fingers as he named the traits. "And maybe intellect if possible. But I've yet to meet an enemy that could match all of those qualities."

"Oh, okay. Well, I've gotta go."

Shadow stared at her as she started leaving.

"Um… goodbye?"

"See ya, Shadow!" She called back as she departed.

A while later, Perci had arrived at the house of Sonic the Hedgehog, where Sonic and his friends were spending the day on the beach, as usual, with a clipboard in under arm. She casually strolled up to the blue hedgehog, who was in the middle of a game of one-man volleyball.

"Hey, Sonic." She said, interrupting his game.

"Oh, Perci. What's up?" He responded.

"I just wanted to ask you—"

"—For my autograph? A picture? A signed picture?" He immediately suggested after zooming up to her.

"Not even close. I just want you to partake in a little training course."

"A 'training course'?" Came a voice from beside her.

She turned to see the rest of Sonic's friends approach.

"What kind of training course?" Asked Tails.

"Oh, just something that I think might help him hone his skills."

"Ha! 'Hone my skills'? Please, I don't need to 'hone my skills'. Check out these already 'honed' skills of mine."

Sonic then started to play volleyball by himself again in an effort to show off. Perci was not amused.

"Yeah, that's nice and all, but I really think you could benefit from a little training."

"Oh, I get it." Said Sonic, catching the ball and strutting up to her all cool-like. "Perci, you don't have to make up some story to hang out with me."

Sonic had placed his hand on her shoulder, but she just shook it off.

"Could you just come with me, please?"

"Sure, anything for a fan." He responded, making Perci roll her eyes.

And so, she led him and all of his friends to her training course. It was a former battlefield from the Time of the Ancients that she modified into some form of obstacle course.

"Alright everyone," Said Perci, addressing the team of heroes, "let us begin."

Perci used her upgraded laser towers to help train Sonic and Tails; unfortunately, Sonic kept trying to show off by running backwards while hitting on her, while Tails just couldn't seem to keep up with the lasers, resulting in Sonic tripping up, tumbling over, and crashing into Tails. He also ended up taking a laser to the hindquarters. Perci used some spinning laser blades to train Amy and Sticks; unfortunately, while trying to jump over one, they both landed on it, resulting in the two of them spinning themselves sick… and then they were thrown into Sonic and Tails. Perci used some smashing machines to train Knuckles; unfortunately, he wanted to show off by trying to outdo the machine, meaning that he tried to keep it up with his bare hands, which resulted in him being smashed repeatedly. He then dizzily wandered over to Sonic, Tails, Amy, and Sticks, collapsing on them once he reached them.

Perci even tried tutoring them to increase their intelligence, but that proved to be pointless since Sonic kept throwing paper airplanes at the back of Perci's head while she was teaching, Sticks kept shouting or rambling on about incoherent nonsense that apparently either seemed to contradict or just had something to do with her lessons, and Knuckles kept falling asleep in class. They kept at it for hours, but it proved to be pointless. In the end, Perci gave up. She then left the heroes and was now marching through the jungle, looking over the results of their training.

"Ugh!" She exclaimed as she threw the papers into the air. "They're absolutely hopeless! How am I supposed to keep Shadow from leaving the island if his only enemy is such a… ugh!"

All that she could do was grunt angrily at how incompetent these "heroes" were. Soon, her expression shifted into a look of depression before she lowered herself into a sitting position on the ground.

"I can't… Not unless I can suddenly find a new hero who can match Shadow in terms of power, speed, agility, skill, maturity, and maybe intellect." She used her fingers to count off these traits.

She sat there for a moment, trying to think of possible solutions, but none came to mind… until it suddenly hit her.

"Wait, that's it!"

The next day, Shadow was on his way to leave Bygone Island forever. He was now walking through a familiar area that Perci had shown him before.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP...

Suddenly, he heard an odd beeping sound. He looked forward and saw the first laser defense tower that Perci had shown him. The top was flashing red and beeping for some reason. He walked closer to it. Then it started beeping faster before it shot a laser at Shadow's torso. The blast was enough to knock Shadow a few feet away. It also hurt… a lot.

"Aaauuugh…" Shadow groaned in pain, clutching his torso as he slowly picked himself up.

"Hurts, doesn't it?" He heard a familiar voice say. "I thought about what you said, and you know what? A hundred shots a minute sounded a little too slow. So how about… a thousand?!"

Shadow looked in front of him and saw Perci standing behind the tower, wearing goggles on her head and holding a remote control. With the push of a button, another beeping noise came to Shadow's ears. He quickly jumped out of the way before another shot could hit him. Perci pressed a few more buttons on her remote and soon, Shadow could see something cutting down the trees behind him. Shadow jumped out of the way and soon came face to face with a giant machine with spinning laser blades. There were also small orbs with lasers and propellers that allowed them to fly.

Shadow teleported out of the blade machine's path, but the laser orbs had set their sights on Shadow and followed his movements. Shadow noticed this and used his super speed to get out of the way, but he soon saw the error in this plan for hand just jumped into the line of fire for the laser tower. He used his speed to get out of the way before it opened fire, but it wasn't long before he realized that his escape methods were futile for the ancient defense weapons seemed to be able to keep up with him, causing him to move and teleport, constantly.

"Intellect, check. I took the liberty of upgrading these bad boys." Said Perci. "They can now keep up with Sonic. That should be enough to at least keep you moving until you eventually run out of stamina."

There was clearly truth in Perci's words, for Shadow found that he only had a split-second to move before the lasers reached his position. Shadow saw no end to the onslaught, so he decided to just end this quickly. Perci saw red energy build up in Shadow's hands.

"Chaos Spear!" With a wave of his hand, a score of red bursts of energy shot out at the flying laser orbs.

The blasts exploded on contact, reducing the orbs to ash drifting in the breeze. Perci's only response to this was pushing a button on her remote while Shadow landed a safe distance away from the laser tower.

"Enough, Perci!" He exclaimed to her. "I see what you're doing, but you could never be my arch-enemy. You may be smart and skilled, but you're also slow, and what you're doing here is no different from what Eggman does to Sonic. You can't defeat me with machines. Just go home Perci, before you make me break all of your family's precious toys".

Perci angrily frowned at this, but that only lasted for a second or two.

"You're wrong, Shadow." She said with a smirk, pulling her goggles down, over her eyes. "I can be your arch-enemy… Let me show you."

With the push of a button, the very ground shook and three more laser blade machines appeared from the trees, boxing Shadow in. From above, even more flying laser orbs appeared and set their sights on Shadow. As soon as Shadow registered what was happening, he soon found himself jumping from the ground to the trees, avoiding the spinning laser blades, and teleporting in mid-air to avoid the lasers. He threw more chaos spears and performed several homing attack on the weapons, but he soon discovered how amazing Perci was when it came to ancient tech, for he couldn't so much as take out twenty of them without getting hurt by lasers. She was far better at this than Eggman since she actually managed to hurt Shadow with her machines.

Shadow looked at Perci and saw that the only way to end this fight would be to get rid of the one orchestrating the enemy attacks. Via teleportation, Shadow appeared right in front of Perci and attempted to grab the remote from her; however, instead of feeling the remote between his fingers, he felt Perci's hand grab onto his arm. Before he knew it, Perci was throwing him over her shoulder and letting him tumble a meter or so away. Getting up, Shadow looked at her with confusion, bewilderment, and amazement.

"Slow-motion, movement reading goggles." She said, tapping her goggles. "I've been working on these for some time. They can read everything, from the movement of your legs to where your eyes are looking. They use complex algorithms to predict your next move before you make it. Granted, they move only slightly slower than you, but fortunately, I'm quick to react."

Shadow had to admit, he was impressed that she was able to accomplish this in such a short time. And so, he lunged at her. She was able to back flip out of the way. That was when Shadow got an idea.

"Chaos Spear!" Shadow began throwing bursts of red energy from his hand at Perci.

Perci was being forced back by the blasts. As soon as the conditions were set, Shadow teleported until he was right in front of her. Perci readied herself for an attack but instead of doing this, Shadow simply teleported back to his original spot a second later. Perci thought that this was odd until she heard the beeping coming from behind her. She just managed to duck out of the way before her laser tower could shoot her in the head.

"Not bad for a dirty move." Said Perci.

"Hmph." Shadow responded smugly.

With the push of a button, Perci's flying laser orbs were on the attack, once more. Shadow tried to used his speed to hit Perci with a spin attack, but she just limbo ducked and let Shadow fly overhead and land behind her.

"Speed." Perci said before back flipping onto and then off of Shadow's head.

Shadow then grabbed Perci's ankle after back flipping off of his head, teleported a few feet into the air and then threw her to the ground. Perci dropped her remote upon impact. Shadow landed in front of her and then lunged over her for it, but Perci, while lying on her back, was able to use both of her feet to push Shadow over the remote itself. After seeing Shadow land flat on his back, Perci quickly got to her feet and grabbed the remote. When Shadow saw this, he responded by crunching up and then falling back down, using the momentum built up to allow him to push up on his hands and continue moving so that he could use his hands to propel himself toward Perci and plant his feet into her gut.

As soon as Perci noticed Shadow moving in a fashion that would result in his feet ending up in her stomach, she rolled out of the way, allowing Shadow's feet to plant themselves on the ground. Shadow and Perci erected their posture and prepared to fight one-on-one. Shadow threw a flurry of punches and kicks, but Perci managed to dodge, redirect, or counter every last one.

"Skill." Perci said as she did this.

Shadow went for a sweep kick and succeeded in knocking her down; unfortunately, he failed to notice the flying laser orbs flying toward them. They succeeded in shooting him and knocking him back to the other ancient machines. He ducked under spinning blades and dashed away from lasers. He blasted a few out of the sky and took out one spinning laser blade machine, but as soon as she saw this, Perci retaliated by pushing a button on her remote and something seemed to fly out of the top of the spinning laser blade weapon that he had just destroyed. They looked like more flying laser orbs.

Suddenly, as Shadow was dodging lasers, he noticed that the other spinning laser blade machines were getting closer. He also managed to take notice of the new flying orbs that suddenly sprouted smaller laser blades of their own that started spinning. They flew right at him, but Shadow just teleported away. Still, they kept following him, and kept attacking him. He ended up with a few burns, cuts, and bruises.

"Power." Said Perci.

As soon as she noticed Shadow had teleported near her, she made her move. She jumped and kicked him in the gut while he was distracted, knocking him back into the spinning blades. Perci jumped in after him, and so, another hand-to-hand battle ensued within the shooting lasers and spinning blades. Perci jumped and rolled out of the way of the blades, and even managed to misdirect Shadow into the laser shots.

"Agility." Said Perci as Shadow took a hit in the back when he wasn't looking, resulting in him being thrown toward her. "And I'm sure Sonic would find time during the battle to make quips and puns, but I'm sure we both I'm far too mature for that."

As she looked down on him with confidence and her laser orbs flew in, Shadow couldn't help but smirk. He got to his hands and stood on them as he started spinning his legs to kick her in the face. The kick made contact and threw her into the spinning laser blades; fortunately, she managed to position herself just right, allowing only a few of her hairs to get cut off. After landing safely on top of the spinning blade machine, Shadow and Perci jumped toward each other to continue their fight. The battle lasted for hours on end, and by sunset, every last ancient defense machine used was in pieces. With all of the weapons being used against him, Shadow was, by now, just as exhausted as Perci was. They were now lying next to each other on the ground, panting from the experience.

"That was… (pant) (pant)—"

"Great… (pant) (pant)." Perci said, finishing Shadow's sentence for him.

"Yes… (pant) (pant) what you just said."

After a few more moments of catching their breath, Shadow managed to straighten himself into a sitting position, followed by Perci.

"So?" Asked Perci.

"'So' what?" Asked Shadow.

"What do you say?"

Shadow didn't want say anything, but the evidence was overwhelming (literally, in a way). So, in the end, he gave in to her request.

"Very well then, Perci. But I hope you understand that being my arch-enemy won't be easy." Shadow then got to his feet, keeping his back to her.

"I know." Perci smiled as she then got to her feet, keeping her back to him. "And I look forward to the many battles ahead. All of which, I'll be moping the floor with you in."

"Hmph, in your dreams, Hero." Shadow crossed his arms as he said this.

"Hah! That's Heroine to you, pal." She said, looking at him over her shoulder with her hands on her hips until she remembered that one of them was hurting rather badly, resulting in her grabbing it to ease the pain.

"We shall see. Until then, I must return home, recuperate, and train even harder than before for our next battle."

"Same here." Perci looked around at the carnage that Shadow had caused. "It looks like these are gonna need some work, anyway."

"And don't think to put it passed me to put innocents in danger to call you out."

"Anything threatens my home; I'll be the one to take care of it."

"Hmph, right." Shadow then started walking away as best he could with a body full of injuries. "Goodbye, Perci."

Before Shadow could get too far away, Perci managed to catch up to him.

"Wait, just one more thing." She said.

"Wha—?" Shadow froze as soon as he felt Perci's lips on his cheek.

She pulled away and Shadow felt his face heat up. Perci smiled at him for a moment, but her smile disappeared as soon as she saw his face as he turned around to look at her. He gave her a deep scowl full of rage before teleporting a couple of feet away.

"Mark my words, Perci the Bandicoot!" He loudly declared. "I won't rest until I make you suffer for this mockery!"

With those being his last words, Shadow then vanished in a flash of light, leaving Perci bewildered, wondering what was so wrong with giving him a kiss on the cheek.

Later, at Shadow's secret lair or whatever he has wherever he lives. Shadow was standing alone in the darkness, talking to himself.

"Perci… I promise you… you will pay for this… for making feel the way I feel about you…" Shadow scowl deepened, as did his blush. "You will pay…! Mwa-ha-ha-ha… Mwa-ha-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA—!"

"Oh, hey!" Said Cubot, who was standing next to Orbot in Shadow's front doorway or whatever he has for wherever he lives for some reason. "Do you like to talk to yourself in the dark too?"

"Our boss seems quite fond of it, himself." Said Orbot.

BLAM

"GYEEP!" They both cried as Shadow threw a blast of red energy at them, making them run away.

"(sigh)" He sighed with a face-palm. "I knew I should've sprung for that Anti-Idiot security system."

*Cue fade too black. *