The updates will eventually start coming less frequently, but for now I feel inspired to get this story up and going.
Again, review and I might be inspired to put the next chapter up quicker ;)
X
It had been years since we had seen each other, much less worked together, and yet the second she saw me entering the room from the corner of her eye she jumped up from her seat like an excited dog and greeted me as if I had been an old friend instead of a past colleague. I wasn't the type of person to respond enthusiastically to such needless charisma, but at the moment I felt much too polite to shut her down with my usual dismissal of harsh words.
"Hello Rouge, it really has been a long while, hasn't it?" I aloud before muttering to myself, "not long enough though if you ask me,"
"Oh Shadow, you really haven't changed a bit!" The scantily clad bat exclaimed excitedly, swatting at my shoulder as she laughed to herself. "It's been over a year since we tried to get the chaos emeralds from sonic and his pals. I wonder what's taken Eggman so long to reach out to us again..."
"Dr. Robotnik, actually," I quickly corrected, "you really don't want to call him that anywhere where he might be able to hear you. I promise it isn't a good idea."
"Oh, I know," she swatted my shoulder again and let out a light chuckle. "But don't worry about me, worry about that friend of yours that Eggman told me about. I'm surprised he's not here yet, I thought he'd be coming with you honestly."
"I actually told him to stay behind a bit," I explained, somewhat taken aback by her knowing about the guest I invited along, "it took every ounce of trust Dr, Robotnik had in me to let me bring him along, so I didn't think he'd be excited enough to go out of his way to tell you about him."
"He actually wouldn't stop talking about him for even a second. When he asked me to join up, he used his talents as a bargaining tool. He said that I'd be lucky enough to meet him if I decided to help out." She took a quick look around the room to ensure that no one was around, "he said that the kid made you look like a pansy."
"He really said that, huh?"
I grit my teeth in a mixture of anger and frustration, not exactly happy that Dr. Robotnik would put me so far down below someone he had just met.
Just as these thoughts entered my head, I heard the soft clank of a door opening on the other side of the room. When I saw who it was that had opened the door, my previous jealousy quickly vanished, making was for the adoption of a much more pleasant demeanor.
"Shade!" I waked towards my old friend with an outstretched hand to shake his, "how ya been?"
In front of me stood a red hedgehog, one that held the same body figure as sonic and I, yet was covered in a dark red fur coat that seemed to shine as it reflected the lights that lit the room. He grabbed my hand with a steady grip and gave the handshake that I had asked for. I could not help but gaze down at the expensive looking watch that he always seemed to be wearing every time I saw him quickly before matching his eye contact with my own once again.
"I'm doing alright," he started, letting go of my hand and letting his arm fall to his side, "I came from a decent walk away, so I'm kind of hoping that Dr. Robotnik gets here soon so we can get everything over with and I can start heading back."
"You mean Eggman, right?"
"And who's that?" Shard questioned, looking over at Rouge after she had tried to correct him.
"Well, usually I wouldn't give you my name because it doesn't matter since we are just working together," she lowered her eyelids slightly in an almost seductive gaze towards Shard, "but I'll make an exception for you. I'm Rouge."
She stood from the wall that she had been leaning on and offered Shade her hand for a handshake. To my surprise, Shade did not grab it with the usual force and steadiness that I had come to expect. Instead, he gingerly wrapped his fingers around her palm and bowed his head in a very polite and formal manner. If it had been a hundred years prior, I'm sure he would have kissed her hand before letting go.
"Hohohoho... someone around here finally knows how to treat a lady."
I ignored the slight jab in my direction, instead looking towards the door that Shard had come from, wondering to myself when exactly Eggman would be arriving. I had been there for a solid ten or twenty minutes at that point, and Dr. Robotnik really wasn't the type of person to keep you waiting; especially when he was depending on you to do a certain task like he was depending on me.
"Well I am just so sorry to keep you all waiting!"
As soon as I began pondering these thoughts, the lights in the room began to slowly dim as a voice rang out with a suddenness that made all three of us flinch in surprise. And before I could determine just what was going on, the room began to fill with a soft cloud of fog that entered through the air vents. While looking around the room trying to figure out what was going on, I didn't notice the door begin to open, revealing a large man with an extremely thick mustache that extended at least a couple of inches past the edges of his face on either side.
"Dr. Robotnik is finally here, so you may all cease your worrying and come to me!"
I couldn't help but cringe at the needlessly dramatic entrance that Dr. Robotnik always used every time I saw him. A glance to my side told me that Shade felt the same way, as he was shaking his head in disgust and clicked his tongue to himself. For someone who always have off the desire of wanting to be taken completely seriously, he sure did pull off a lot of stunts that made you want to treat him exactly the opposite.
He stepped into the room and sat on an extremely elegant chair behind a barren desk that I could only guess had never been used before. He gestured for us to approach him, saying, "come now, don't be shy! I promise I won't bite unless I like you!"
Although his words didn't necessarily encourage me to follow with what his gestures were saying, I still stepped forward silently with everyone else.
"Now, let's get down to business. Oh, and sorry I was a tad late, traffic was terrible!" He started, "now listen up, I don't want to have to repeat myself."
"I've been waiting for a bit to go after the chaos emeralds again because I wanted them to think that their dumb little plan of splitting the emeralds up actually scared me off, when in reality it just made it easier to deal with those fools!" He slammed his fists onto the desk in front of him and let out a bellowing laugh, "and now that they have their guards down, I can finally start pulling off the best plan that I've conceived yet!"
He then gave off a huge chortle, though he stopped abruptly and pushed his outstretched finger in the direction of Shade.
"And by 'best plan I've conceived yet', I mean that you're amazing and you're gonna be in charge of getting the chaos emeralds!"
While Shade offered an overly obedient 'yes sir!', Rouge and I both gave Dr. Robotnik and each other confused glances, thinking to ourselves that he may have just forgotten about the two of us. Finally, Rouge spoke aloud, "why are we here then, what are we supposed to do?"
"Well, obviously Shade might need some help with the mission, even if it means having one of you go grocery shopping so that he can be in the best physical condition possible."
As soon as he had finished speaking, mine and Rouge's jaws dropped in disbelief and anger. But before we could do it say anything, Dr, Robotnik spoke up again, "of course, you two will still be receiving the same payment as always, even if it is less than I'm paying Shade. Look at this as an easy day at work."
And with that, Dr. Robotnik stood and walked out the door, stopping only long enough to inform us that we would be meeting at the same place next week to update him on the progress we've made.
"Well, there ya go," Rouge let out a loud groan, "talk about being appreciated."
"Don't listen to him, I can tell he's never been much of a smart guy. And, for the record, I'm not going to make you guys go grocery shopping for me." Shade consoled the both of us, putting his hand comfortingly on Rouge's shoulder, "this isn't gonna be as easy as Dr. Robotnik thinks it's gonna be. There's a reason you guys have failed so many times, and it's not because you guys are incapable. He should've learned that by now."
We all gave a silent agreement before starting to heard our separate ways as we each started towards a different exit.
"Let's all go back to my place, actually," Shade spoke up with a snap of his finger, "we can go hang out and figure out exactly what we are gonna do about the chaos emeralds. Not to mention it's a new place, so I haven't been able to break it in yet."
I was apprehensive at first, but Rouge was extremely quick to agree and begin pestering me to do the same. After hearing the both of them complain, it finally became too difficult to refuse.
And with that, we all made our way through the forest in a direction we had never been before.
