It was getting late that night in Tech City. The sky was so dark it almost seemed pitch black and thick fog practically covered the quiet streets of the city.
A black male hedgehog with red quills was wearing a black punk style leather jacket, black skinny jeans, and black and red sneakers. He was walking down the deserted sidewalk with a white bat woman with long white hair. The two had just got finished seeing a movie together.
The white bat wore a pink jacket, a black tube top underneath it, a pink mini skirt, and white combat style boots. She looked over to the black hedgehog while smiling and laughing. "Oh my God! That movie was so corny!"
"The movie wasn't scary at all", he added. "How is finding a hand in a fryer scary? It's just creepy. And there was little to no blood. So freakin' B rated."
"Those commercials always make movies look better than they really are you know?" She formed a sly look towards the hedgehog. "What did you think about the sex scene? You know every legit horror movie has to have some kind sex scene."
"Do you mean the actual sex scene or are you talking about when the dumb bitch flashed her tits every time you blinked?"
She found it amusing that he despised the horror movie that they had seen very deeply.
He sighed heavily, "You know if I wanted to watch porn, I could just borrow Espio's box set of Suicide Girls."
The bat woman arched a brow towards the hedgehog. "…Espio has the…box set?"
The hedgehog rubbed his forehead, "…He gave it to me for a birthday present and he kept borrowing it from me so I told him to just keep it."
She couldn't help but to burst out in laughter. "Oh my God! He gave that to you for your birthday? Shadow, I didn't know you were such a pervert!"
A light blush formed on his face. "I use to be roommates with that guy! He made me watch so much porn with him, it was unreal!"
She knew that most of the time he was so deep and serious and he wasn't exactly a comedian. "To actually imagine you watching girls banging other girls is pretty unreal", she snickered.
"Well…" He placed his hand on her hip as the two walked together. "…That was before he knew I was getting laid."
A small blush formed on the bat woman's face. Shadow and her were close but were not quite at the point that they were dating just yet. However, with the two going out to movies and such, it felt so much like an actual date. No one knew of their intimate friendship except for Espio. A warm smile formed on her face as he showed his affection towards her.
"I'll walk you home. We have work in the morning after all." When he looked in front of them, he spotted a dark figure standing under a dim lamppost. Shadow looked harder and saw that he turned out to be a strange man.
He was the appearance of a gray fox man with black hair. The man wore a brown top hat with a matching brown suit, and black dress shoes. He just stood in front of them shuffling playing cards and not a word slipped from his lips.
Shadow instantly had a bad feeling about the strange man and stopped walking.
The bat woman noticed him staring at the strange man. "What's going on?"
There was an awkward silence between them before Shadow finally spoke out to the man. "Hey! Step aside. We're walking here."
The man said nothing and just continued to shuffle the playing cards in his hands.
The bat woman fixed her eyes on the strange man and saw an evil smirk formed on his lips. "Who the hell is this joker?"
Shadow clenched his fists as he became impatient with the strange man. "I don't know, but he's gonna get his ass kicked if he doesn't move."
The two froze as they heard the man suddenly speak.
"So…you're the so called ultimate and powerful being of all Mobius?"
The bat woman's eyes widened as she was shocked to find out that the man appeared to know about Shadow. "…You know about Shadow?"
The man slowly shifted his mysterious dark green eyes to the white bat woman. "I know quite a lot actually, Miss Bat…Rouge The Bat…am I correct?"
She gasped in shock as she heard her name slip from his lips. "…What?"
The man continued as he shuffled through the cards he had in his hands. "I've been observing the entire Chaotix team for a while now but two detectives stood out…"
Rouge began to get nervous as the man continued to talk.
His eyes shifted back to the black hedgehog, "Shadow The Hedgehog…captain of the Chaotix." He slowly looked over to the bat woman, "…and Rouge The Bat…the famous guns girl. I've seen what you two can do in battle together. You two make quite a remarkable team."
"Okay enough of this! Who the hell are you?" Shadow demanded.
The man had stopped shuffling the playing cards and formed an evil smile at the two. "Oh? How rude of me. Allow me to introduce myself…my name is Luthor. I was sent by the Dark Alliance to test how strong you two really are."
"…The Dark Alliance?" Rouge had wondered who they were. Were they another group of villains that were determined to destroy the Chaotix team?
"Test us?" Shadow had repeated blankly. "What do you mean?"
A menacing look appeared on his face, "I thought you'd never ask."
Shadow's eyes widened as he saw him take one of the cards from out of his hand and quickly throw it into Rouge's direction. He threw the card so quick and abrupt, all he heard was Rouge's painful groaning. He turned and saw that the card had sliced her neck.
It cut her deep enough to make blood start pouring from her neck and run down her chest. She kneeled down to the ground and held her injured neck in pain.
Shadow kneeled down next to her and saw her suffering from the wound. "Rouge!" He flashed his eyes back at the man when he heard him laughing evilly. "You bastard!"
Luthor's menacing eyes were locked onto Shadow's. "Well? Aren't you going to fight me?"
Shadow stood from the ground and made a fighting stance. "Fight you? Bitch! I'll kill you!"
When he saw a yellow aura surrounding his hand, he figured he was going to unleash an attack on him. When he saw him blast the strange energy at him, he moved his body slightly to dodge the attack. "Chaos Spear…interesting. You harness the power of Chaos eh? Let's see how well you can put it to good use…"
Shadow saw him toss a handful of playing cards into the air and watched the cards starting to aim at him. He put his quick speed to use and dodged the flying cards. He gritted his teeth in anger at the gray fox who barely even moved his body. He saw him holding a card that had fire surrounding it. He figured that he could not only use the cards as blades but he could also use them as some kind of fire attack. As he saw his eyes shifting over to the injured bat woman, his heart raced. When he saw him throwing the flaming card at her, Shadow stepped in front of her and allowed the card to slice through his arm.
Rouge's mouth hung open as she saw Shadow wincing and groaning in pain from the attack. "Shadow!" She called in a weak voice.
The mysterious man chuckled deeply as he fixed his eyes on the bat woman. "Please tell me that you have more fight in you, guns girl."
She couldn't help but to get even more angered as he taunted her.
Shadow noticed her change in attitude and felt that she wasn't in a good enough condition to take the strange man on in a fight. "Rouge, don't do it!"
She decided not to listen to him and took her bloody hand away from her injured neck. She weakly stood from the ground and used her wings to fly into the air.
Luthor watched as she charged at him with a powerful kick. She kicked him hard enough, it knocked him into the brick wall of the building standing beside him. He dodged her as she attempt to kick him again. She came at him with more powerful kicks. He dodged all of her attacks until he blocked her foot and used his elbow to hit her in the stomach.
She kneeled to the ground while holding her stomach in pain. She saw him grab her around her neck and began to choke her. She gagged as she tried to break away from him.
"Is this what the Chaotix team has to offer?" He began to talk in a low and soft tone, "This is the famous guns girl? You're way too soft and frail, my dear. Do you always depend on your little boy toy to save you each and waking moment? Admit it! You are nothing without that hedgehog by your side!" He was suddenly shot in his stomach multiple times by a handgun she had hid in the inside pocket of her jacket. He got knocked away from her by the impact causing him to let go of her.
Shadow made his way over to Rouge who had kneeled on the ground and was coughing up blood. "Rouge!"
The bat woman looked up Luthor who had slowly stood from the ground. Her eyes widened in disbelief as she saw the gunshots she made in his body start disappearing. "…What?"
Shadow had saw it as well. "…What the hell are you?" He saw him confront him at amazing speed and smiled evilly at him.
"I'm going to become one of your worst enemies", he spoke before he sent Shadow flying into a nearby parked car.
He hit the car with a powerful impact. He looked back at Luthor and saw him stepping back into the thick fog that surrounded them.
"This is only the beginning, detectives. Prepare yourselves…"
Rouge watched in amazement as the mysterious man disappeared into the thick fog while continuing to shuffle his cards. When she knew he was gone, she ran over to Shadow in worry. "Shadow, are you okay?"
"Yeah", he spoke in a weak tone. "Just who the hell was that guy?"
The next day at the Chaotix agency, Shadow was in the main lobby explaining what had happened the previous night with the rest of the detectives.
Vector placed a finger to his chin and leaned against Tonya's desk. "You and Rouge were attacked by a man in a suit?" He asked in disbelief.
The black hedgehog made a nod and crossed his arms. "This man was unlike anyone we ever faced before. He attacked us with some kind of strange powers. He can manipulate simple playing cards and used them as blades and other strange things."
The kid bee who was using his wings to hover next to the green crocodile had a worried look on his face. "He sounds really dangerous! Good thing you and Rouge made it out there in one piece!"
Shadow shook his head, "Barely. He roughed me up pretty bad to be honest and he got Rouge pretty good too."
The purple cat woman glanced around the main lobby but didn't see any sign of the white bat woman in sight. "Where is Rouge anyway?"
"She's downstairs in the armory room", a purple chameleon spoke. "She didn't look like a happy camper this morning."
"Of course not", Charmy spoke. "She looked awful."
The green crocodile looked back over to Shadow. "What else can you tell us about this Luthor guy?"
"Well", the hedgehog began. "This guy…wasn't your ordinary Mobian. When Rouge shot him, his bullet wounds just disappeared."
The chameleon's eyes widened in disbelief. "…He regenerated?"
The hedgehog made a small nod at him. "That's what I was thinking."
Vector crossed his arms as thoughts ran across his mind. "Luthor eh?…And he mentioned something about The Dark Alliance?"
The kid bee turned to the green crocodile full of worry. "A new enemy?"
The crocodile made a small nod. "It seems like it, Charms."
While everyone was letting the details of what happened last night sink in, Shadow decided to go talk to Rouge. "I'm going to find Rouge and see if she's all right."
When Shadow made his way downstairs into the armory room, he found Rouge tinkering with a small metal black circle object. He was surprised that she was wearing her black, leather, skintight battle suit. He studied the strange object she was fiddling with and it appeared to be some kind of bracelet. He walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her lovingly from behind. "What you working on?"
"Just another experimental weapon of mine", she replied in a sad tone as she stared at the bracelet. She didn't even turn to the hedgehog as she explained. "It's a gatling arm cannon. It's supposed to have enough power to blow up a tank. It hasn't been tested yet. Firing it could be dangerous. Fatal even…"
"…Sounds interesting." He noticed the sad tone used within her voice and figured she was upset about something. He took his arms away from her body and placed his hand gently on her shoulder. "Hey you doing all right? I barely saw you all morning you know?"
The bat woman placed the black bracelet down on the silver table in front of her and sighed heavily as she turned to him. "Not really. I feel like absolute shit."
The hedgehog's eyes caught sight of the bandage that was covering the cut Luthor had made on her neck. "Well, your injury doesn't exactly look pleasant to have."
The bat shook her head and took his hand away from her shoulder. "Not that. It's just…what he said…"
Shadow gave her a puzzled look and didn't seem to have a clue what she was saying. "What did he say to you?"
She paused for a moment and looked away from him sadly. "…He said I was nothing without you…basically saying you're the only reason why I've come this far as a successful guns girl." She lowered her head down to the floor in sadness, "Apparently, I'm not as strong as I thought I was."
"What?" He stood in front of the saddened bat woman and gave her a serious look. "Rouge, don't listen to what that guy says. He's full of shit and you know it. He doesn't know shit about you or me."
She looked up at him in sadness, "But he knows that you and I are close…"
He thought about it and she was right. The only one who knew of their secret relationship was Espio. "…That can't prove anything."
She clenched her fists and turned from him. "No…now that I think about it, I am just one of those typical damsel in distress types. I'm always getting into some kind of trouble and then…" She slowly turned back to the black hedgehog, "…My knight in shining armor rescues me."
It made him feel bad to see Rouge putting herself down like this. She was so full of self esteem and reassurance. He had never seen her like this before. "Come on, Rouge. Stop thinking like that. You're the most strongest and independent woman I know."
She had to admit that hearing Shadow talk so highly of her made her feel appreciated by him.
"Not to mention you don't take shit from no one. Remember when you thought I was screwing around with Beca behind your back?"
"Beca?" She repeated blankly.
"You know! The chick who works at the coffee shop down the street. She's been trying to get into my pants for the longest time", he spoke with a sly smile.
The white bat couldn't help but to let out a small giggle as she began to remember the disagreement between them. "Oh yeah! I caught you texting her and I got so mad. What did I throw at you?"
"You threw a hair dryer at my head", he replied with a small smile. He put a finger to the side of his head. "Even though that happened months ago, it still hurts a little."
She giggled as she began to remember the past disagreement between the two. "That's what you get for talking to girls who are prettier than me."
He reached out to her and caressed her cheek lovingly. "Trust me. I've never met anyone prettier or stronger than you."
"Oh, Shad…" A light blush formed on her face as her body had gotten closer to his. She began to slowly lean close to kiss him until they both suddenly heard footsteps rushing down the stairs.
The two quickly took a step away from each other and had hoped no one had caught them about kiss. A sigh of relief escaped them when they saw a purple male chameleon approaching them.
Rouge rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Oh it's only Espio."
The chameleon arched an eyebrow when he saw Rouge jump back over to the hedgehog and passionately kiss him. "…Really?" He walked over to the two in annoyance and watched them until they finally broke their kiss. The two gave the chameleon an irritated look as he delivered the same look back. "…Just stop it."
Shadow stroked her waist while she leaned against him. "What do you want?"
He began to explain the reason why he confronted the two. "You said you were attacked by a dude wearing a brown suit and a stupid top hat right?"
He made a small nod, "Yeah?"
"Well, someone stole a battle robot from the G.U.N. military base and is using it to terrorize the city. And the guy you mentioned earlier matches his description perfectly."
Shadow's eyes widened when he couldn't believe that Luthor had appeared once again. "…Luthor?"
When Rouge heard Luthor's name, her heart skipped a beat and anger once again built up inside of her. She clenched her fists and muttered under her breath. "…It's time to settle the score."
Shadow and Espio watched as Rouge ran over to a table and snatched the black bracelet off of it.
Shadow's mouth hung open as he saw her about to leave the room, "Rouge, where are you going?"
She spun around with a serious look on her face. "I'm gong to stop Luthor…alone! So Shadow, don't interfere!"
With them both speechless, they watched as the bat woman stormed upstairs.
Espio turned to the stunned hedgehog in confusion. "What the hell got into her?"
The black hedgehog sighed heavily. "She's upset because Luthor called her weak and now she's trying to prove him wrong…" He turned to the purple chameleon. "I have to go after her."
"Be careful." Espio made a small nod and watched him run upstairs after her.
When Rouge had finally made it within the streets of the city, she saw citizens fleeing from a robot that stood as tall as the buildings. She stopped in her tracks and stared at the familiar figure that stood on the shoulder of the giant robot. She looked harder and saw that it was no other than Luthor gazing down upon her with an evil smirk on his face. She gave the man a cold glare, "…Luthor…"
The gray fox tilted his hat slightly from the sight of the bat woman. "Fancy running into you here, my dear."
She pointed at the mysterious man. "You stole that G.U.N. robot! Why?"
He shrugged his shoulders as he answered her calmly. "Isn't destroying your precious city a fair enough reason for you?"
"You won't get away with this! I'll take you down!"
He arched an eyebrow towards her, "Oh really?" He glanced around for a moment and looked back at her. "Are you planning to take me on alone? Without that hedgehog in the picture?"
"Hell no", a cold voice had spoken near them.
Immediately recognizing the voice, Rouge angrily spun around to a black and red hedgehog approaching her from behind. "Shadow?"
"Oh?" Luthor spoke with interest, "…So you're here?"
The white bat woman gritted her teeth in annoyance at the sight of the black hedgehog. "I told you to not interfere! I'm doing this alone!"
Before she could take off, Shadow had grabbed her by her wrist and made her turn to him. "Rouge, stop this right now! I'm not going to allow you to act so reckless!"
She jerked her wrist out of his grip angrily, "I can't believe what I'm hearing from you! You don't think I can do this!"
"We're in this together believe it or not! So stop acting so stubborn!"
She gave him an angry look. She couldn't believe what she was hearing from him. In her mind, he had apparently thought that she couldn't win the battle by herself.
"Look, you take care of that robot and I'll take care of Luthor."
Before he could run off to fight Luthor, she turned to him in annoyance. "Why can't I have Luthor?"
"Because…" He fixed his red eyes onto the gray fox who gave him a calm smile in return. "…You're not the only one who has a score to settle."
When Luthor saw Shadow approaching him, he let out an amusing laugh. "So the famous Shadow The Hedgehog wants to challenge me once again? Grave mistake, my boy." He took out a playing card and quickly tossed it at Shadow. When Shadow had dodged it, the card had flew past him and hit a parked car.
Shadow and Rouge's eyes widened in surprise when they saw the car explode and saw huge chunks of metal flying into the air.
"Holy shit!" Shadow shouted in surprise. "They can blow shit up too?"
"That isn't even half of what I can do." The gray fox jumped from the robot's shoulder and confronted the shocked hedgehog. "Let me give you a taste of my real power."
A yellow aura started glowing around the hedgehog's hands. "I'll make you eat those words." When he blasted a shot of the Chaos energy at him, Luthor had tossed one of his playing cards in his direction.
The both of them had flew back from the powerful impact of their attacks colliding with each other.
While Shadow and Luthor were fighting each other, Rouge had her mind distracted by the giant robot standing in front of her.
The robot seemed like nothing but a giant silver tank with arms and legs. It had gun barrels on the arms, sides, and legs of it. It was like looking at just one huge war machine. When it approached her, it swung its giant bulky fist at her. Its fist slammed down on the city pavement when Rouge had used her wings and dodged its attack by flying.
She charged at the robot and sent a forceful kick to its head. The attack knocked the robot back slightly but it wasn't enough to stop it or even slow it down.
She swore under her breath when she noticed that her attack didn't do much of anything to stop the robot. "Damn it…" Before she could attack it again, the robot swung its fist at her again and knocked her down from mid air. She dropped to the ground hard. Before she had the chance to get back up, the robot had picked up her body and threw her into a nearby tall brick building. She slammed into the wall so hard, it was almost like she flew through the building.
Worried, Shadow called out to her. "Rouge!"
With him being distracted, Luthor took the opportunity to attack Shadow. With surprising speed, he confronted Shadow and struck him forcefully in the stomach. "Worrying about her is the least of your problems", he spoke in a sly tone.
The impact was so strong, blood seeped out of his mouth.
Luthor had kicked him so hard, Shadow was sent flying away from him. An evil smile appeared on his face as he stared at the black hedgehog who laid on the ground weakly. "You call yourself the ultimate life? Don't make me laugh! I can't believe the alliance feels threatened by someone like you." Before he could attack him again, a gunshot had suddenly pierced through his chest from behind. He paused and slowly turned to a white bat woman who had blood running down her head and her body showed signs of exhaustion.
The bat woman had her hand tightly gripped around a magnum and didn't dare point it away from the fox. "Stay away from him!"
He was quite shocked to see her even standing in the condition she was in. "My, my looks like this delicate little flower is finally starting to bud…"
Shadow's eyes widened when he saw the gray fox slowly starting to approach her while he held out a playing card that had a small flame burning on the edge of the card. "Rouge, get away!"
Rouge ignored his warning and stayed standing. She fired a few more rounds at him making a direct hit, however the gunshot wounds were healing as soon as she fired more rounds. She figured it was useless since he could regenerate his body. Her eyes widened in horror when she saw him throwing the playing card towards her. She shut her eyes tightly waiting for the impact. A few seconds passed and she didn't feel any pain. She opened her eyes and saw the black hedgehog standing in front of her and confronting Luthor. Stunned, she stared at the deep cuts on his face, arms, and other parts of his body. She gasped in worry when she saw the hedgehog fall to his knees while holding his bleeding arm. "Shadow!" When she looked back at Luthor, he came at her with great speed and sent a powerful punch to the stomach. Blood spewed from her mouth from the impact.
Luthor watched in amusement as she fell to her knees while she held her stomach. "How pathetic…I can't possibly let you both die like this…"
Rouge didn't dare lift her head until she heard the giant robot's footsteps approaching her and Shadow. She saw him beginning to walk away from them when the robot stood in front of the two fallen detectives.
Before finally leaving the scene, he turned to the hedgehog and bat one final time. "You disappoint me, detectives. If we meet again, promise me you'll get your head out of each other's ass next time around." His eyes flashed over to the angry black hedgehog. "Especially you, Shadow. Perhaps one day you'll learn that caring too much will become your downfall…"
"You bastard!" When he tried to get off of the ground, he fell to his knees once again. He helplessly watched as Luthor walked away until he mysteriously faded away. Since Luthor had left the scene, he decided to take his mind off of him and focused back at the robot standing in front of them.
Shadow and Rouge's eyes widened in shock when they saw the robot point its hand towards them. The hand had surprisingly changed into a huge canon like weapon.
Shadow's heart skipped a beat when a bright white light came from the barrel of the canon. He looked into the white light in horror and heard the canon charging before it would actually fire at them. The only thing that had came to mind was to avoid the attack. He knew they wouldn't be able to stop a powerful attack like that if they stood where they were. When he turned to Rouge, he saw her standing in front of him while she gripped her hand around the black bracelet on her arm.
The bat woman was fearlessly looking into the bright white light of the canon.
"Rouge, what the hell are you doing? We have to…"
"No!"
He paused as he heard her weakly yell out to him.
"I won't run! You've always protected me, Shadow! But now it's my turn to play hero! I'll prove it! I'll prove to everyone that I'm strong!"
"Rouge", he begged, "You don't have to do this! You could die! Do you really want to take that chance?"
She turned her head to him and gave him a warm look. "I thought a certain someone told me a long time ago that taking on the responsibilities of guns girl means putting your life on the line to protect the things you love and cherish the most?"
He remained silent and began to think back what he had told her when he first hired her for the job of becoming the new weapon specialist.
"I found what I have dear to me…and that's you, Shadow…"
He remained speechless as she spoke.
She shook her head slowly, "I know that you may not share the same feelings that I have for you but…but I think of you more than just a co worker…a partner…a friend…"
"…Rouge…" His eyes shot open when the black bracelet around her arm had took the form of a gatling gun that had practically covered her arm.
She turned away from him and pointed the barrel of the gun at the robot. "I'll protect you this time!"
He couldn't believe it. She was going to fire the untested weapon at the robot. He didn't want her to act so reckless. He couldn't stand it if something were to happen to her. "Don't do it!"
She gulped and shut her eyes tightly. Before she could pull the trigger, she felt her body being forcefully shoved out of the way. She fell to the ground hard making the weapon she had around her arm fall off. She saw the huge white laser beam fire and completely miss them. In disbelief, she turned to the black hedgehog who was slowly getting off of the ground next to her. "Shadow?"
The weak black hedgehog stood to his feet and glared at the robot before he charged at it in amazing speed.
Rouge watched in shock as his body turned into a black blur and pierced right through the robot's metal body. She saw the robot exploding into small chunks of metal all over the street. Afterwards she turned to the black hedgehog who was approaching her. She stood from the ground slowly and clenched her fists. "You idiot! I had him right where I wanted! I could've finished him off! I could've saved both of us!" She was suddenly silenced when a hard slap was sent to her cheek. Speechless, she held her burning red cheek and gave the hedgehog a confused look. An awkward silence had came between them until she saw the black hedgehog suddenly embrace her body tightly.
"Stupid girl…", he spoke in a hurtful voice.
While he hugged her, it felt as though time had stopped and he would never let go of her.
"…I thought I lost you but I didn't…" He pulled away from her and leaned his forehead against hers with a smile of relief on his face. "You're here…you're still here…"
With his sudden compassion towards her, she couldn't help but to have tears swell in her eyes. He cared about her. He really did care for her. "Of course I'm still here", she spoke in a broken up voice. "I won't leave you, Shad. I'll never leave you."
When a tear streamed down her cheek, he gently wiped it away with his thumb. "I don't care what any asshole says about you. You're strong and beautiful. You and I both know that. Anybody who thinks otherwise can piss off."
A warm smile formed on her face as she heard him say those kind words to her. "You're not just saying that to make me feel better are you?"
He couldn't help but to laugh a bit. "If I was bullshitting you, trust me I would always poke fun at you." He suddenly leaned closer to her until his lips had met hers. He pulled away from her and held hand. "Let's go home."
Author's Note: Well here's yet another action packed oneshot along with another powerful new villain, Luthor! A mysterious man who was sent by the Dark Alliance to threaten Shadow and Rouge! Who is the Dark Alliance you ask? Don't worry! You'll learn more about them in a future fic called I Declare War! Now for some trivia! From the first scene of the fic, I was originally going to use it for a lemon oneshot but I once again thought of it to be more of an action story than a romance story. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed the story! Your reviews are greatly appreciated! Look out for more stories being posted soon!