A/N
Well, this is embarrassing. Here I am nearly a year later, and only just now having updated.
Either way, here's the next chapter. Thank you for your patience.
*SHADOW'S POV*
My hand brushes against the walls of the ancient pyramid cave. It sure is dark in here, but luckily for me, I have my flashlight on me. A G.U.N. agent comes prepared for everything!
Shrieking, I drop the flashlight as soon as I see Rogue's angry face on the end of the beam. I suppose I stand corrected: a G.U.N. agent comes prepared for...most situations.
"Bet you think it's real funny that you just leave your partner and girlfriend behind."
"Oh, Rouge...you know I don't have a sense of humor."
"THAT'S NOT THE POINT!" she stamps her foot. "We're more than just a couple: we're supposed to be a team! And it's really damn hard to be a team when you're always trying to go off on your own."
"You know what else makes it hard to be a team? When you're constantly invading my space." I walk off into the next room before she can protest any further.
Rouge had remembered her flashlight like I did, but the handle is broken and it won't turn on. I give her my flashlight, and grab one of the torches off of the wall to light my way.
"Okay, so I may have overreacted a teensy bit earlier, but whatever's wrong between us, we can work it out, right?"
A glint catches the corner of my eye. Rouge is about to put the gems she picked up in her Hammerspace inventory.
"Rouge?! What are doing?!"
"What? They're just gems, sitting here. No one's using them, I don't think they'll be missed."
"Put those down! Those are probably cursed or something!"
"Shadow, we've been to this pyramid before. There's no mummies in here."
"You don't know that! There are parts we haven't even been to yet. This is one of them."
Rouge laughs. "Kay, whatever. I'm gonna throw these lovelies in my Hammerspace inventory anyway."
I suddenly feel uneasy as I hear a low growl. Rouge takes the liberty of shining the flashlight in its direction...
"...Well? What'd I tell you?" I wave a hand in the creature's direction. "Freaking mummies."
*BATTLE: SHADOW AND ROGUE VS. MUMMY!*
*Third-Person POV*
Shadow goes to punch the mummy in the face! Minor Success! Its undead body doesn't feel much pain, but Shadow still took 5 HP.
Rouge tries to land a kick on the mummy! Failure! The mummy took a step back, making her slip on the ground and land on her butt. Ouch! That smarted, but luckily her cushiony ass shielded some of the impact, so she only lost 5 HP.
The mummy tries to use a mummy's curse Shadow and Rouge! GREAT SUCCESS! The mummy's hazy breath knocks them unconscious, making them lose the rest of their HP, and it wins the battle!
MUMMY WINS!
*SHADOW'S HAMMERSPACE INVENTORY*
1-Ups: 4
Rings: *None*
Items: Torch (extinguished), G.U.N. Scanner, Gun
*ROUGE'S HAMMERSPACE INVENTORY*
1-Ups:4
Rings: *None*
Items: Makeup bag (contains eyeshadow, lipstick, and compact mirror), depowered flashlight, broken flashlight, Gun
*ROUGE'S POV*
"...Rouge? ...Rouge! Get up!"
Forcing my eyes to open, I roll onto my stomach, and struggle a bit before I balance on my feet. It doesn't take me long for me to notice the gems I've just collected are gone. "Okay, where the hell are my gems?"
"The mummy took them back."
Growling, I turn the flashlight back on and storm off.
"Rouge? Where are you going?"
"To get my gems back."
"Rouge, no! It's not worth it."
I take a step forward, but feeling even sicker than I was a few seconds ago I double over myself and collapse, hitting my head on the stone beneath me.
"R-Rouge!" I can feel Shadow kneel down next to me while he breaks down in a coughing fit.
"What's wrong with us, Shadow?"
"I-it's gotta be that mummy. If we're cursed, we've got to reverse it, and fast!"
"Right." I struggle to get up, but somehow I manage to find my stance again. I lend my hand to help Shadow, but he just has another coughing fit. "Ew, gross! Cover your cough, Shadow!"
"S-s-orry" he says between coughs. "C-can't stop!" he pulls his hand away from me to cover his face.
I clear my throat to try to rid of the frog in it. "Come on, we need to go."
Shadow gets a couple more out of his system, and finally is able to stand and walk behind me.
I'm starting to think we should get sick more often; Shadow hardly ever puts his arm around me.
"Any luck, Shads?"
"Negative. Damn thing gets no signal in here."
My ear twitches. "Wait, I hear something."
"What is it?"
"I don't know, it's like...some kind of...'crackling' sound."
"Where's it coming from?"
I emit a sound wave in its general direction. That's weird, it sounds like it's coming from behind a wall. Unless...
I stumble over to the wall and begin pressing in random places. Shadow seems to get the same idea I do, and starts to shine the flashlight I dropped on the same wall.
"Rouge, look, there!" he waves the flashlight in a perfectly straight crack in the wall.
Pushing right next to it, we've just found a secret door!
"Grr..."
Chills are sent down my back...and not just the kind of chills you get when you have a fever (which I also have but mostly managed to ignore them to keep moving forward).
My ears flatten in exasperation. "I want my gems back, you undead bastard."
It opens its mouth, about to curse me again, but Shadow kicks it in the face, sending its head flying! That little stunt looks like it left my poor baby fatigued, though; he drops to his knees and wipes his mouth.
"My hero."
He gives a light groan as I kiss him on the forehead.
"Hey, what's this?" I notice there's sparks coming from the mummy's head.
"It's...a robot?"
"Eggman must be using it to guard whatever was behind the secret door," I remark.
"Then it's most likely there's no curse being placed on us...but, rather, we've been poisoned!"
I smirk smugly back in his direction.
"...What's with that look on your face?"
"Told you there wasn't any mummies here." I scoop the gems back up into my Hammerspace inventory.
"Oh, whatever. Let's just go find an antidote before this stuff kills us."
"How does the Ultimate Lifeform get poisoned anyway?"
He blushes and rubs the back of his head. "Even the 'Ultimate Lifeform' has a few weaknesses Dr. Robotnik didn't anticipate."
I shrug. "Fair enough."
Helping him up, we make our way down the secret staircase, bracing ourselves for whatever may be on the other side.
*DR. EGGMAN'S POV*
"Finally, you, my ultimate weapon, shall, be complete! HO! HO HO HO HO!"
BOOM!
"HM...?" Something is coming from the other side of the door to my secret underground pyramid laboratory!
"Wait, try it again," a feminine voice comes from the other side.
BOOM!
What's THIS? It's Shadow and Rouge that had kicked it open!
"How DARE you ruin my GLORIOUS evil laugh?!" I demand.
"So this is what you've been trying to hide, huh?" Rouge asks, raising an eyebrow.
"I don't know what you're up to, Doctor...but it can't be good."
Scowling, I twist my mustache. "SLEET! DINGO!"
My two janitors/ex-bounty-hunters are busy cleaning up some scrap that had spilled.
"Yeh, boss?" Dingo asks.
"Attack!"
"Er, we would, sir, but...you've taken all of our weapons years ago," Sleet says, taking the broom from his Hammerspace inventory. "All we have are brooms."
"SO USE THE BROOMS!"
Dingo seems quite pleased to charge at the two intruders, while Sleet mutters something under his breath about regretting his life choices.
Our G.U.N friends happen to be armed, but since they're weakened by the poison the guard robot administered, they struggle to defend themselves against Sleet and Dingo's ambush. But only now have I obtained all the pieces I need to put my ultimate fighting machine together, and there's only so much two incompetent janitors can do to buy me some time, so I'll have to work quickly.
Even with an intellect such as mine, repairing the wiring of a robot that has been dismantled for over a decade is a difficult task: one that requires precise focus and precision. Carefully, I stick the small scalpel into the wire connecting his arm to the robot's body, and split them apart at about an inch or so. I do the same with the other wires that had been damaged on its body.
I look behind me to check on how the battle is going: both sides are getting tired...there's no telling how that will end.
Stripping the coating at the ends of the wires, I put blues with blues and whites with whites, twisting the sides together so that the wires will become functional again once installed. This robot will likely deal a lot of heavy damage in battle, so I form "joints" out of its wires, and cover what parts of the wires were exposed with electrical tape.
Glancing behind me, I see that both sides are back in combat, but Shadow and Rouge are beginning to lose their strength, thanks to the coughing fits, nausea, and vertigo my toxins have plagued them with.
Some of the body shell had fallen into disrepair over the years, so I had new pieces from another reincarnation prepared to replace what could no longer suffice as proper armor. Attaching them wasn't too much of an issue either...just that my welding torch didn't start as soon as I would have liked it to.
Now all that was left was to install the CPU/Main Battery. It was a tiny, cylindrical vial, one that would go in the place of the broken, shorted out one. There is always a risk that an attack bot will mistake its master for a target, but I was quite sure that I had worked out all of the kinks in the programming. All I had to do was install it in the back of the head...like so...
...that's strange, why isn't it starting? Perhaps it just needs a little jump. I grab jumper cables, attach them to its shoulders and give it a jolt!
SUCCESS! Its bright purple eyes open, and it sits bolt upright.
I look over at Shadow and Rouge, successfully held captive by Sleet and Dingo.
"Behold! I present to you...EMERL 2.0!"
The black, silver, and purple robot stands on its two feet, glaring at the hostages.
Rouge squints her eyes. "...Didn't you already make two that were just like that one?"
"Ah! But this one is different! You see, Emerl met his destruction at Sonic's hands, and G-merl exploded and then became a traitor living with those wretched rabbit friends of Sonic...but I've reprogrammed Ermel's original data so that its latest predecessor is the perfect killing machine in every way. I've set the programming so it will do exactly as I tell it, without betrayal, and upped its fighting abilities so that it won't be destroyed."
"Hm...making a robot that had two predecessors that was destroyed and one of them a semi-traitor, but enlisting it as your personal assassin that you're sure will do exactly as you say? Mm-hmm. This will end well for you," Rouge rolls her eyes.
"We'll see who'll be making the snarky comments when Emerl 2.0 is finished with you! Emerl 2.0, attack!"
Scanning the room, it leaps at its target...!
...A chair that happened to be in the corner.
"NO, YOU FOOL! THOSE TWO! OVER THERE!"
Ignoring me, it slams the remains of the wooden chair into the ground.
I facepalm. "Oh, forget it. Perhaps you're a failure, just like the others. SLEET! DINGO! Shut it off and throw it in the warehouse!"
Sleet presses a button on the computer, and my latest failed creation falls to the ground. What a waste of my time.
A/N
No idea why I couldn't get around to putting a battle in the first chapter, so I hope the one in this chapter is good enough. =^-^=
Also, about HP deductions on teams for readers who weren't familiar with the first version of Mario Fanfiction, or catch the first chapter there: for example, let's say Sonic and Tails are fighting Shadow as a team. Shadow successfully attacks Sonic, but Tails doesn't get hit. Sonic and Tails as a team lose 5 or 10 HP, depending on how successful the attack was. This doesn't count if he successfully attacks both of them, in which case they would lose 10 or 20 HP total.
