1And so, out of my sadistic mind comes another story, on top of the countless others I'm working on at the moment. Am I insane to try to add another to my schedule? Maybe, but that ain't gonna stop me from starting this story anyway. Hope you all enjoy this, as it's really my first attempt at an AU crossover.

WHO WE ARE

Chapter 1: Meet the gang!

It is a shame. By nature, we judge people so harshly by first impressions, we often shut out those who are not the same as us or those around us. Instead of choosing to learn about those we shun, we assume from the way they look, talk, move, or act that they are troublesome, dangerous, idiotic, freaks. No matter how hard we try to distance ourselves from the habit, it resurfaces at one time or another. The inevitability of it may make life seem unjust or unfair, but over time, these wounds are healed and closed, those who were mistreated will receive their retribution.

And thus, the story begins in the big apple itself, New York City...

Inuyasha grumbled lightly as he ran down the sidewalk towards the old warehouse where everyone was waiting for him. He had been born into a family of humans and demons. As a half demon, most didn't find him very appealing. Humans feared him, demons hated him. As if he was the only freak on this planet! All his friends were freaks too, duh!

He ran up to the door of the warehouse and banged on it hard. "Oy! Open up!"

There was a soft click on the other side and the door was opened up by one of his oldest friends, NiGHTS. Whereas Inuyasha was hot-tempered and easily riled, NiGHTS was the opposite, even-tempered, easy-going, ever-cheerful. Not much could get him down. The reason he was one of the 'outcasts' as most put it, was for just that reason. He was cheerful and imaginative all the time. He was extremely creative as well, writing stories, songs, poems, anything. They were extremely good too. He planned to get them published soon, but right now, he believed that his place was with his pals. Another reason why people found him strange was his choice of dress. Always in a purple jester-like outfit. He even wore it under his school uniform and refused to change out of it, no matter what the circumstances. "Yo, Inuyasha! Nice of you to join us. What kept ya?"

Inuyasha snorted lightly. "Stupid bus was ten freaking minutes late... again."

There was a small chuckle from near him and he turned to see Shadow there. "Honestly, Inuyasha, I would have figured you would have learned not to trust in the buses to much anymore." Shadow was probably the darkest of the outcast's group. Short for his age, he kept to himself, but opened up ever so slightly with his friends. Being the black hedgehog that he was, it wasn't very hard to tell that he was almost totally gothic. Sure, he was cheerful every once in a while, but he let off such a creepy atmosphere to begin with, even his cheerfulness was unnerving.

Inuyasha growled at his friend. "Shut it, goth-hog!" he shouted. Although insults were sometimes exchanged between them all, none of it was ever really serious. They were proud to be friends with each other.

There was another chuckle and Inuyasha grinned as he heard the voice. "Oh, what are you chuckling about, Sly?"

Sly Cooper stepped out of the shadows, still holding his cane in his hand. He never let go of his cane for some reason or another. "It's funny to see you guys fight like this. That's what I'm laughing at." Sly was a racoon anthro. Of course, in this day and age, demons, humans, angels, anthros, it was all relative, nothing to be surprised about. However, Sly was an outcast for a few specific reasons. Aside from being a silver-tongued lady-charmer, which came off as annoying to most men and several women, he was also a renowned thief and con artist. He did both so well, you couldn't even tell if you hadn't seen him commit the crime with your own eyes.

Inuyasha chuckled lightly. He had a deep respect for Sly, though he wouldn't admit it. The guy was fearless, especially when it came to women, even though they all knew that Sly would never go steady with a woman. He didn't want to be 'tied down'.

A four voice filtered through a sounds system in the center of the warehouse and several lights came up around them. "Well, if you guys are all done chatting, we can get on with filming, can't we?" Everyone turned to see Mewtwo there. Sly nodded. "Yeah, we're all finished, buddy."

Mewtwo nodded in satisfaction. Mewtwo was probably the oddest case out of all five of the outcasts. He had never known the parents and had grown up in a lab of sorts. No one there had ever told him exactly who he was, what race he belonged to, not even who his parent's were. He looked strange and acted stranger. He believed very strongly in otherworldly senses, telekinesis, things like that. He had spent several years of his youth learning the arts of the psychics and the mystics of the world. He had looked into several religions and had worked hard to come up with his own sense of ritualistic ESP. All of these reasons were why he was shunned. Most found him scary because of some of the ways he passed his time. Although there really was very little similarity between them, some even found him as dark as Shadow from their perspective.

All five of them went to the same school and it was there in that same school they had met and banded together. All of them carried each other's burdens and helped to defend each other against the seemingly endless onslaught of unprovoked abuse coming from most of the other kids. And, ad to it, if there was one thing they all had going for them, it was the fact that they were all stupendous actors, which was why they were at the warehouse today."

Mewtwo looked over at NiGHTS. "Alright, NiGHTS, did you manage to get the script done?"

NiGHTS nodded vigorously and handed all four of them a copy of a script done in very professional formatting, entitled, 'HERO: Two Sides of the Same Coin.'

Inuyasha flipped through the script a bit. "Alright, so what about parts, oh all-seeing director?" he asked Mewtwo.

Aside from acting, they all played a part in the construction of these films that they made. Mewtwo was organized and had good talent for seeing ahead, so he directed most of their scenes when he wasn't on camera. NiGHTS, being the imaginative character that he was, was in charge of coming up with plots and writing scripts for the movies. Sly and Shadow traded positions between camera manager and special effects manager every so often. Inuyasha, since his family was extremely well off, helped provide all the supplies that they needed in the most legitimate fashion possible.

Mewtwo grinned at Inuyasha's question. "Luckily, I had plenty of time to sort this out... alright, Inuyasha, you'll be playing the part of Tsugaru, the hero of the story."

Inuyasha grinned. Underneath his fiery temper, he was actually quite a passionate actor and loved to show it in front of the camera. He never showed it around anyone but his friends however. He had the badass reputation to think about. He flipped through a few pages to find a character description that NiGHTS always supplied with the scripts.

Mewtwo turned to Shadow. "Shadow, you're going to be playing the part of the evil lord Sanoske."

Shadow nodded lightly, not even giving any more acknowledgement to his assignment. He was usually the villain in most of their films and that was how he liked it. Once or twice, he had played a hero or rival of the hero, but that was extremely rare and only really happened when the hero was just as dark as a villain.

Mewtwo looked down at the script. "I'll be playing the anti-hero, Kasama." He nodded in satisfaction to himself. Once again, NiGHTS had managed to give each of them a part that truly managed to play to that person's specific strengths when it came to acting.

Mewtwo turned to Sly. "Sly, you're playing the mercenary assasin Shinta."

Sly smiled a bit and nodded, twirling his cane a bit. If a part needed to be stealthy, he could definitely pull it off. Being the thief that he was, that was one of his major strengths.

Finally, Mewtwo turned to NiGHTS. "Guess that leaves you as the preacher Yoshimitsu, right?"

NiGHTS grinned. "Alright! Just the part I wanted to." He laughed lightly and took his own script.

Mewtwo chuckled gently. "Alright then, Inuyasha, you take your script home tonight and see how long it'll take you to get all the supplies together."

Inuyasha nodded. "Yeah, yeah, I know the drill. I've only done this a billion times before."

Sly chuckled again. "Hey, you guys wanna go get something to eat over at the Cluckin' Bell? They're having a half-off sale and I'll buy."

Shadow looked up from his script and gave a very small smile. "Sounds good if you're buying. So, how many pockets did you have to lift this time?"

Sly grinned. "Hey, I didn't lift any pockets... it was mostly purses this time. But don't worry, it was only from those annoying chicks who kept cutting us off at that red light near here."

Inuyasha laughed. "Serves them right! Now come on, let's go. Nothing more we can really do for the movie today."

Mewtwo nodded. "Agreed. Let's close up and head out." He walked over to the wall and flipped a switch, shutting all the lights off.

As they walked out of the warehouse, NiGHTS turned and locked the door, sliding the key into a secure crack in the sidewalk.

Sly was about to walk off before he frowned and pointed down the street to several shapes that were becoming more and more visible with each passing second. "Incoming! Big group of the cool kids!"

Shadow growled. "If I had my way with them... can we get away before they notice us?"

NiGHTS frowned. "Doesn't look like it... I think they've already spotted us.

Mewtwo sighed. "Looks like confrontation is inevitable."

Indeed it was. The group of cool kids, headed by one of the coolest in town, Kouga, walked right up to Inuyasha and the others. "Hmm... looks like I should have brought a can of raid today. The pests are swarming." There were several chuckles from his group as this was said. A few of the people included in his group were Hiten and Manten, two brothers who were both star jocks on the football team, Kagome, a well-off girl who excelled as an artist and was revered for her beauty, Carmelita Fox, a fox anthro who was the daughter of one of the most powerful law-enforcement officers in the city. She was extremely athletic and was top-notch when it came to most track-and-field events, Naraku, a mechanical genius who manufactured drugs and sold them in a very discreet manner, Clockwerk, An owl anthro that had been in so many fights that most of his skin had to be replaced with metal, and finally, Amy, a stuck up hedgehog girl that acted as if the world revolved around her.

Inuyasha snorted at Kouga's comment. "Of course they're swarming, they're attracted to that horrible smell you have coming off you."

Kagome frowned and turned to Inuyasha. "Why don't you go and grow up for once in your life?" she asked.

Inuyasha growled again. "Back off! No one asked you to just come up and insult us."

Mewtwo nodded. "Ever mind the rule of three, what ye send out comes back to thee. If you insult someone, you must be prepared to be insulted back."

Naraku looked eyes with Mewtwo for a second. "That is some strange logic you use there, bio-hazard."

Shadow chuckled darkly. "At least his logic is solid. Much better than yours. Your logic makes no sense whatsoever since you're high all the time, right?" He snapped his fingers. "Game, set, match."

Hiten and Manten were not known for their intelligence, but nevertheless attempted to insult the group. "Well you can all just go back to the circus where you belong."

NiGHTS raised an eyebrow at the two. "Well, we'd certainly be making more money than you two, now wouldn't we?" Everyone knew that Hiten and Manten got all their money from their mother who was living out in Hawaii right now. Their father was just a drunken fool who had never left his favorite chair unless it was for a can of beer.

Carmelita looked as if she could punch out NiGHTS right then and there. However, she decided to take her frustration out on Sly instead. Since she was the daughter of a law enforcement representative, she felt very strongly about the law. However, the only thief she really believed needed to be brought to justice right now was Sly himself. She completely denied the fact that her 'friends' were involved in things like illegal drug dealing. "How can you just sit there and let your friends make fun of innocent people like that?" she asked, her slightly Spanish accent showing.

Sly raised his eyebrow and scratched the back of his head gently with his cane. "Innocent? Dear Carmelita, I think you'll find that 'innocent' is not the proper term for most of those I see before me. As for insults, They do what they want, you can't control them. As a side note, why must you always attack me? Do you find me just that attractive?"

Carmelita growled lightly. "Shut it, Cooper. I'll keep attacking you until I can finally drag your ass in and get you behind bars."

Sly Shrugged. "So I've stolen a few valuables here and there, big deal. Not like anyone really missed them."

Kagome clenched her fists. "What kind of drunken, drugged up whores brought you five up!"

Mewtwo winced at that. "No one did..." he whispered a bit.

Mewtwo might have taken that hard, but Inuyasha took it harder. "My mother wasn't a whore! She was a wonderful woman, thank you very much! Come on, guys, we're getting out of here." He turned around and walked off, the others following quickly.

Kagome quirked an eyebrow. 'Was?' she thought.

Kouga nudged her lightly. "Nice one, doll. Looks like that REALLY did a number on them."

Kagome managed a realistic smile and nodded. "Well, they deserved it!" she said. It was more to convince herself than anyone else.

Down at the Cluckin' Bell, Inuyasha was grumbling as he bit into his chicken burger. "Damn bitch, such an ass, has no consideration for others..."

Sly sighed a bit and sipped a bit of his coke. "Ease up man, it wasn't that bad. We've all taken worse from them before." He grinned for a second. "If you want, I could plant stink bombs in her gym locker again.

Inuyasha ceased his grumbling and shook his head. "That's okay, they got wise to that one a while back, Sly. Thanks for the offer though."

Sly gave a small two-finger salute. "Always happy to help."

Mewtwo had managed to keep his sadness at bay during the whole conversation. Shadow looked up at him. "We all know how much that statement hurt you too, Shadow. Trust me, I felt a bit of a sting too. Sure, I had parents, but they were never around to begin with."

NiGHTS grinned. "And that is why you started bringing home stray animals and hiding them in your expansive basement, where you spend most of your time."

Shadow was a little shocked, but suppressed his surprise. "And where did you happen to hear that?" he asked calmly. "He hadn't really let anyone, not even his friends see his room in his basement. Sure, they were best friends, but his dark nature led him to keep secrets from them now and then.

NiGHTS winked. "I know things," he said simply.

Inuyasha shrugged. "Well, now that all that is out of the way, I was wondering what you guys were doing later this weekend. I hear that there's going to be a big party or something over at Dimitri's or something."

Dimitri was a big celebrity among the misfits and outcasts of the city. Being one when he was growing up, he now owned a large club, uniquely called 'Dimitri's'. It was the largest hangout for every freak, geek, mismatch, misfit, and outcast in the city. A cool kid would never be caught dead there. Dimitri himself was popular among them and was most known for getting a chuckle out of people for his misuse of American slang.

Sly grinned. "Sounds like a pretty good time... that is, if we all manage to get though Friday just fine."

Mewtwo gave him an odd look. "What do you mean? All we really have to worry about is that big pre-calculus test."

Shadow growled lightly. "Aw crap! I knew I forgot something! That's it, big cram session coming at my house tonight."

NiGHTS laughed at his friend's state of panic. "Always the diligent student, eh Shadow?

Shadow snorted at him. "Last I checked, you weren't doing pretty well in that subject either."

NiGHTS shrugged. "Meh, I already have enough math credits to graduate. The only reason I'm taking this is because my folks want me to get a good job like accounting or something. You know they don't approve of me writing all the time."

Inuyasha sat back a bit. "So we heard. Alright then, Saturday night, Dimitri's."

Mewtwo nodded and looked at his watch. "Damn, sorry guys, but I have to get going. I promised old lady Kamiya I'd help her out with her jigsaw puzzle today." Since Mewtwo really didn't have a home to go to, he hung out at a retirement home. He liked it there for some reason, it relaxed him and all the people there were very supportive of him and made him feel good. He also got to stay there for free since he volunteered there so much.

Sly nodded. "I'd better get going too. My mom'll kill me if I don't let the dog out again."

Shadow, Inuyasha, and NiGHTS all waved to the two as they walked off. NiGHTS shrugged a bit and threw a bit of money down next to the bit Sly had left for the meal. "I might as well pay a bit of the tip then." He grinned. "Not often you get good service like this, ne?" He laughed again and got up, waving to the two remaining. "See you guys at school tomorrow... oh, and Inuyasha, be thankful that they're even letting you on the bus!" he laughed the whole way out.

Inuyasha growled lightly. "Stupid clown, thinks he's so funny."

Shadow tilted his head. "What's all that about anyway. And why are you taking the bus? Last I heard, you had your license and a car."

Inuyasha snorted. "They took it away for speeding, running three red lights at the same intersection, and some other things, but it was a bogus charge!"

Shadow raised an eyebrow. "What made it so bogus?" he asked, finishing off his fries.

Inuyasha sighed. "They were stopping every vehicle traveling down that particular sidewalk. That's profiling, which is illegal."

Shadow sighed. "Emphasis on the word 'sidewalk', Inuyasha." He got up from the table. "I'd better get going too. My pets all need to be fed tonight anways. See you tomorrow, oh he with the driving sense of a blind man." He walked off.

Inuyasha growled lightly and left soon after Shadow, grumbling about how he did not drive like a blind man, he drove like a man in a hurry.

END: CHAPTER 1

So, how was it? I do hope that everyone likes it. Tell me what you think and give me suggestions... as long as they are put in a non-flaming way.