CHAPTER 1

NOT STRONG ENOUGH

That night, the Chaotix were in a jail like cell sitting on the cold floor thinking of a plan to break out the cell.

Charmy sighed, "How did we end up in here anyway?"

"It was Rouge. That woman always gets us in these situations every time", Espio said.

Shadow was leaning against the wall. He wasn't happy with Espio's theory, "Don't blame this all on her. It wasn't her fault."

Espio crossed his arms, "Why does she always get captured first and when we start looking for her, we get captured as well?"

Shadow didn't have anything to say to that at the time. He moved on to a different subject, "That's not important right now. We need to get outta here and save Rouge and Vector. Here's the plan..."

Espio cut in, "Who died and made you leader?"

"Look Espio, I'm second in command. When Vector's away, I'm in charge. Got that."

Espio backed off, "I guess I forgot about that."

Shadow faced Tonya, "Tonya, slice these bars in half."

Tonya nodded and took out her fans, "Got it." She took both of her fans and slashed at the iron bars.

The bars fell to the floor. The cell entrance had an opening to escape from.

They easily broke out the cell.

Later they soon found Vector and Rouge.

Vector was tied in rope and Rouge was being held by one of Hao's robots.

Rouge looked over to Vector, "Vector, I'm sorry this happened."

Vector sighed, "Once again, you're forgiven."

A blue wolf was walking around Vector, "Now that I have all of you captured, I can take over this city with my robot army."

Vector gave him a glare, "Get bent Hao, you know that the rest of my crew will show...I hope."

Hao laughed, "Yeah right. They'll never save you because they're in their own crisis." When Hao looked behind him, he saw a black hedgehog. He then saw his fist and everything then went black. Hao fell to the floor unconscious.

Vector smirked over to Shadow while Charmy untied him, "I knew you guys would think of something."

Shadow ran over to the robot that was holding Rouge and punched it in the face.

The robot fell to the floor badly damaged from Shadow's powerful punch.

Rouge hugged Shadow, "I'm so glad you're here."

Shadow pulled her away, "Why wouldn't you be?"

Espio chuckled, "Deja vu huh? It's the same process all over again. We go on a mission, Rouge gets captured, Shadow comes up with some plan, and the bad guy gets captured. Business is getting kinda dull around here if you ask me."

Rouge put her hands on her hips, "What do you mean I always get captured?"

Espio smiled, "It's the truth ain't it?"

Tonya walked over to Espio, "Don't tell her that?"

Rouge faced Shadow, "Is it true? Do I get the team in trouble that much?"

Shadow didn't want her to feel bad, but he wanted to tell her the truth, "To be honest...yes."

Rouge was shocked to hear that and from her own boyfriend, "I had no idea."

Shadow didn't mean to hurt her feelings, "Are upset with me?"

Rouge shook her head, "No, I'm going to go home and get some rest." She walked out the building.

Later at Rouge's house, Rouge was in her bathroom looking into her mirror thinking about what the others said to her. "Maybe they're right. I need to make a change. To show them how tough I am." She eyed the black mascara on her counter. She picked it up and stared at it, "I'll show them."