Chapter 2

A few short minutes later the X-Jet was flying over Future City with several police hover cars flying around it, "The thieves were last seen heading this way, they can't be far." said Johnson over the radio, "There they are!" shouted Espio as he pointed to three figures in the distance, "Rouge, can you hand me my Extreme Gear?" asked Shadow as he took off his coat and stuffed it under his chair. Rouge handed Shadow a black Extreme Gear and he held it under his arm as he stood up and lifted the glass hatch from over the X-Jet. Shadow jumped out of the X-Jet and as he fell he climbed onto the Extreme Gear and activated it. Shadow streaked towards the trio in the distance and quickly gained on them, then he threw several Chaos Spears at one of the thieves, the spears struck the thief and he fell onto a rooftop below. Shadow landed on the rooftop and walked over to the thief, who he now recognized as a green hawk, "Jet?"

The hawk looked up, "Shadow? What're you doing here?"

"My job. You?"

"Same. We Babylon Rogues are thieves, remember?"

"Yeah, I remember."

"Sorry Shadow, but we need the money, Tempest is costing Wave and me a fortune."

Shadow sighed, "Okay, I'll let you go this one time, on one condition."

"Great, what is it?"

"You guys have lived in Future City a long time right?"

"All our lives, why?"

"How much do you know about the 'Future City Scourge'?"

"Hmm, not much, although Storm had a run in with one of them once, some guy named Draco. Sorry, I wish I could help you more."

"Well let's just say you owe me one, now get outta here before the cops show." Jet nodded and flew away on his Extreme Gear.

Later in Sergeant Johnson's office the Chaotix stood on one side of a desk while Johnson sat in a chair on the other side, "Sergeant," said Shadow, "Did you ever search the Future City Scourge's hideout for any bodies?" Johnson shook his head, "No, we didn't think we needed to."

"Well maybe you should search it now, is it still there?" asked Vector

"Yeah, it hasn't been touched since the explosion."

Later Johnson lead the Chaotix and several officers to a burnt down warehouse on the outskirts of the city. "This is it, the Future City Scourge's hideout." said Johnson, "As you can see any bodies inside would've been incinerated in the explosion."

"Don't be so sure, we should look anyway." said Vector

"Vector," said Shadow, "If you, Tonya and Charmy stay here and help the officers check over this place I could take Rouge and Es to look around the place Blade was murdered."

A few minutes later Shadow, Espio and Rouge reached the place Blade had been killed, a white chalk outline of Blade had been drawn on the ground, Shadow walked over to it and looked around, then something caught his eye. Shadow walked over to a crack in the ground, the crack had been caused when Draco had used his special attack, Shadow took a small flashlight out of his coat pocket and looked into the crack, "Hey, check this out." he called, Espio and Rouge walked over, "This crack is really deep, too deep to have been caused by anything that usually makes cracks in the road like an accident."

"So what d'you think did cause it?" asked Espio, suddenly Shadow's ears perked up, "Es, come here." Espio kneeled down next to Shadow, "What is it?"

"Don't move, just act like we're talking about the case. There's a demon nearby, I can feel them."

"You recognize who it is?"

"No, I've never felt them before, but they're powerful. I want you to use your camouflage to find them without being seen." Espio nodded and stood up, he looked around and saw an alley. Espio walked into the dark alley and as soon as he was in the dark he used his invisibility technique and came back out towards Shadow and Rouge. Espio looked around and eventually saw a figure silhouetted against the sun on a rooftop, then Espio leapt at the building and quickly ran vertically up the wall. Espio landed on the rooftop and silently snuck up on the red hedgehog standing on the edge of the building looking down at Shadow and Rouge, Espio then kicked the hedgehog in the back, causing them to fall from the building and crash into the concrete pavement.

Shadow quickly looked up and ran at the hedgehog, who stood up, revealing himself to be the red hedgehog, Carnage. Carnage glared at Shadow as he ran and threw a punch, which Carnage blocked, then Carnage tried to punch Shadow, Shadow blocked the punch but was unprepared for a second punch, which connected with his chest and sent him sliding backwards across the ground.

Espio, now visible again, jumped from the building and tried to kick Carnage, who saw Espio falling towards him and grabbed the chameleon's leg and threw him into a building. Shadow ran at Carnage again but Carnage jumped into the air and kicked Shadow in the head, causing him to fall to the ground again. Carnage then turned and ran but Shadow quickly jumped to his feet and chased after him. Shadow quickly caught up with Carnage and jumped towards him, Shadow performed a spin attack at the blood red hedgehog and hit him in the back, Carnage fell forward but he put his hands out in front of him and flipped forward onto his feet. Carnage then back flipped over Shadow and when he landed he shouted, "Hell's Inferno!" A large fireball formed in his hands and flew towards Shadow, who dove out of the way. Shadow then threw several Chaos Spears at Carnage, who leapt into the air and then fell towards Shadow. Shadow crossed his arms in front of his face to block the Carnage's foot as he tried to kick him, Carnage then flipped back and as he landed, threw a punch at Shadow, forcing him to the ground. Carnage put his foot on Shadow's chest to keep him from getting up, "You should've stayed in your own city hedgehog, this is 'Future City Scourge' territory." A fireball formed in Carnage's hand, "And in coming here, you've sealed your fate."

"Oh yeah?" said Shadow, "Seal this." Shadow quickly punched Carnage in-between his legs. As Carnage reeled from the punch, Shadow suddenly began to spin, he spun into Carnage, knocking him back, and landed behind the red hedgehog. As Carnage stumbled back, dizzy from Shadow spinning into him, Shadow punched him in the back of the head and Carnage fell forwards, unconscious. Shadow pulled out a gun and aimed at Carnage, he was just about to fire when a blast of water knocked the gun from his hand, Shadow looked to see where the water had come from and saw Draco and Thea standing a few feet away. Just then a police siren rang out, "Draco, get Carnage, we've gotta get outta here." said Thea

"You're not going anywhere." said Shadow, Thea smirked, "Wanna bet?" Thea then pointed at Shadow and the feathers on her arm launched themselves at him. Shadow tried to dodge the feathers but one cut his left arm, Shadow winched as the feather sliced his skin, suddenly Shadow saw a fist coming at his head. Before Shadow could react, Draco had knocked him out, Draco then picked up Carnage and he and Thea ran away before Espio, Rouge and several police officers appeared.