Wow, new chapter done at 2:40am; I really need to get out more (NO. I LIE.)
This chapter is much shorter than the others but this is mainly where the problem begins!
I don't own any SEGA characters or the movie/movies or songs mentioned. Enjoy the story~
The night was still young as Knuckles drove the down the road into his neighbourhood after he dropped off Shadow at his desired location and met up with Amy; his pink friend had grown into a beautiful lady and Shadow was lucky to have her in his life. All day Knuckles had been missing his pearly white wife who had was carrying their future child; he never thought about having kids but all seemed possible when Rouge became more that a friend. With his radio blasting to his favourite song, Knuckles screeched to hit the notes and mould his voice over the lyrics.
I wanna know what love is
I want you to show me
I wanna feel what love is
I know you can show me
Pulling into his driveway, he turned off the engine and headed off into house only to trip over a large trash bag that he had failed to see in the darkness. Rubbing the bump on his head, he remember that tomorrow was garbage day and Rouge usually left it outside so by the time Knuckles came home from work, he could put the trash out onto the sidewalk. Dragging the heap of trash, he opened the garbage can and before he could shove the trash into the can, he noticed something familiar. Reaching into the trash, he pulled out a box of Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Ice cream and a bottle of sparkling apple juice that were both completely empty.
"What the hell?" Knuckles thought to himself, "Could Rouge have possible eaten all of this? I just bought this shit yesterday!"
Shoving the trash into the trashcan, he jogged into the dark, quiet house and headed downstairs into basement. Walking over into the laundry room, he opened up the washer and found their bed sheets and one of Rouge's favourite undergarments and she wore when they usually…
"Oh, God, you've got to be kidding me!" Knuckles whispered as he slammed the washer door shut and headed upstairs to bed.
Entering into his bedroom, Knuckles saw Rouge snuggled close to her pillow and one hand over her protruding belly; although the scene before him was sweet, he began to feel uncomfortable with some of the things he found. Taking off his shoes and gloves, he slid into bed with his wife and was stuck in thought of the possibility and maybe, just maybe, his wife might be cheating on him.
"What the hell is wrong with you, Knuckles?" Knuckles mentally slapped himself, "You honestly think your pregnant wife is going to cheat on you? How would that even work?"
Quite uncomfortable with his train of thought, he turned over and tried to get some sleep. Morning came fast and the sun was peeking through their blinds, setting its sun rays on Knuckles thus waking the red echidna up. Groaning in irritation, Knuckles turned over to find Rouge gone; quickly sitting up, he rubbed his eyes and headed downstairs as he quickly put on his shoes and gloves. Grabbing the bottle and ice cream bottle from behind the closet, he walked into the kitchen to see Rouge calmly reading the morning paper like she always did in the morning; holding onto the 'evidence' behind his back, he decided to proceed with the confrontation.
"Good morning, Rouge." Knuckles said suspiciously.
"Good morning, Knuckles." Rouge said using Knuckles' cynical tone.
Slowly, the red echidna placed the glass bottle and plastic box onto the kitchen table and stepped back, letting Rouge observe the items on the table.
"Are these yours, my dear?" Knuckles asked sarcastically.
"Yes, Knuckles, I figured I'd bring out the goodies because yesterday we finally paid off the house mortgage." Rouge said.
"Oooh snap. I-ugh I guess I forgot." Knuckles shrugged, "Wait now hold up! Did you actually eat all this!"
"Please, just because I'm with child doesn't mean I'm going to eat everything. No, I had Fletch come over."
"Fletch? Our neighbour? Why?"
"You weren't here and I was lonely!"
"Sorry, it's just I get worried and stuff with work I'm just getting all stressed out." Knuckles said as he pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Knuckles, you don't have to jealous of anyone. I love you with all my heart and I am no one else's but yourself; you're just so adorable when you get jealous too be honest." Rouge smiled.
"And I'm just so smooth when I smoke you out." Knuckles smiled smugly.
"What does that mean?" Rouge asked after giving it some thought.
"Can we watch Stripper in Manhattan again?" Knuckles asked with a pouty face while Rouge let a laugh and kissed Knuckles on the cheek.
As the white bat looked out the window, she locked eyes with Fletch, a brown porcupine, who was heading off to work and waved at each other which sent a spark of jealous through Knuckles' nerves; he needed proof. Trudging upstairs, he remembered that Sonic had given him a special spy device 2 years ago; a teddy cam. Snatching it out from the deepest corner of their bedroom closet, Knuckles pulled the stuffed bear out of the wrapping and shoved a video camera up the bear.
"Alright, you overstuffed piece of fluff, you're going to keep check things around here when I'm gone." Knuckles said as he placed the toy near Rouge's vanity and pressed record.
Suddenly Knuckles' cellphone began to ring scaring the daylights out of him before he answered the call, "What!"
"A little grumpy today, aren't you, banana man? Anyways I found a way to pay for the wedding." Shadow's voice said over the phone.
"That's great! Hell, I'll come pick you up right now!" Knuckles said as he kissed Rouge goodbye and headed out the door.
"What the hell am I? Your second wife? I can just teleport there." Shadow blurted out.
"Slim Shady, please! I wanna hear all the gossip! I'll be there in a jiffy, sweetums!" Knuckles said as he increased his pitch to a woman's and started the car.
Heading out into the street, Knuckles finally made it to Shadow's quaint home and began throwing stones at his door. Shadow stepped out of the door with a look of disbelief plastered over his face and slid into Knuckles' car and slapped his friend over the head.
"Idiot, do you want to get your ass kicked?" Shadow growled.
"I didn't want to get out, my baby will get lonely!" Knuckles said as he sped ahead, "Alright so tell me your brilliant plan!"
"So after last night's 'wonderful' dinner, I went up to the ARK and I tried to some things of value; I found a hidden storage compartment on the lower level and I found some photos of the early prototype of the ARK Space Colony before it was made and some blueprints." said Shadow as he pulled out four photos.
"Those are some good quality pictures, man! They must be more than 60 years old; how much do you think you can get off of them?" Knuckles asked.
"I called a professor at the University of Remille who teaches about space and he's also been researching about the ARK for the past few years, he said to meet him near some Space Convention at City Hall and there's a store outside called Nebula where he'll meet me at. He said he'd give me about $60,000 for the photos." Shadow smirked.
"$60,000 for the photos? That's- holy shit, you're going kick Silver's ass!" Knuckles snickered.
"Let's not get our hopes up, the guy better show up." Shadow muttered as Knuckles pulled up in front of Nebula.
"It smells like a bunch of nerds!" Knuckles said as he watched kids old and young walk the streets in their best costumes and head over to City Hall.
"Alright, I'll be back in a few minutes; just don't beat up any kids." Shadow said as he got out of the car and Knuckles mocked him from behind as he entered the store.
"Where the hell am I?" Shadow thought to himself as he looked around the store.
It was large with planets hanging from the dark blue ceiling with lights scattered about to make it look like the night sky. He remembered some of the constellations; the Big Dipper, the Great Bear, Ursa Major, you name it. The store was not as busy as the streets so he figured that it would be easier to find the Professor; finally he saw an elderly man, most likely in his fifties, who was reading a book by the asteroid section.
"Professor Green?" Shadow asked as he approached the man.
The professor was dressed is a formal brown suit with a red tie, thick glasses and powder white hair and short mustache; he held a very gentle aura around him and smiled wholeheartedly.
"Ah, Shadow the Hedgehog, I've been expecting you. Now the pictures, may I see them?" the professor asked politely.
Shadow presented the pictures as the professor straightened his glasses and smiled, "They're definetly one of a kind, and I'll take them all."
"Did you bring a cheque?" Shadow asked seriously.
Meanwhile outside Knuckles was hanging around outside the store and was on the phone with Rouge, "I'm tired of being away from you all the time, I just wanna come home and have romantic dinners, maybe even a little booty-cutie!"
Whilst Knuckles was on the phone, he was unaware of the two people dressed in black that ran into the store. As the Professor was about to write the cheque, the store door suddenly burst open and before Shadow could sidestep the criminal, he was hit with a taser and let out a yell as the electricity shocked through his body and kept him paralyzed on the floor. The Professor was knocked out and pulled behind the counter as the two thieves began to grab whatever money and goods they could find.
"Hey, Vector! What junk should I take, man?" asked one of the thieves who pulled down his mask to reveal a purple weasel in order for him to talk to the larger theif.
"Dumbass! Put your mask back on and Vector is not really my name!" the larger theif said out loud and suddenly grabbed Shadow's photos of the floor, "Take the stuff that looks old like this!"
Shadow grunted in pain and his eyes shot open when he saw the thieves steal his photos and tried to get Knuckles' attention as he watched his echidna friend begin to dance around as he spoke to Rouge over the phone, "Knuc- Knuckles…"
Shadow's paralyzed state left him weak and unable to communicate properly; as the thieves stepped over Shadow, one of them recognized a gun secured to his leg.
"Dude, this guy's armed!" one of them squealed.
Shadow's red eyes narrowed in on the unusual markings leading down the larger thief's arm; a tattoo of ninja stars with lines leading straight down towards them, his eyes shot open when he noticed the taser about to shock him again.
"You mother- AARGH! " Shadow yelled in pain and was disarmed.
The thieves ran as fast as they could down the street just like how they entered leaving Knuckles unaware of what happened, a passed out Professor and a pissed off Shadow. Weakly getting off the floor, Shadow was able to crawl to the door and limp outside as he watched the two idiots run away with his effing photos; as Shadow watched Knuckles continue to talk on the phone, his fume burst.
"KNUCKLES!" Shadow yelled in fury.
"We can have a second kid and I can-" Knuckles continued to talk.
"KNUCKLES!"
"Shadow, I'm on the phone!" Knuckles said before he was turned around and grabbed by the collar by Shadow.
"You call yourself an agent! Those bastards took off with my photos, dammit!" Shadow yelled, "Oh by the way, they stole your fucking gun too! I ought to pop a lid in you-!"
"Have a heart! I've got a wife and a kid at home!" Knuckles said as he defended himself from Shadow's fist that was ready to strike.
Their ears picked up on the faint sound of police sirens coming for the down the street; looking back at each other, they both felt screwed at the moment. Soon enough, red and blue lights flashed across windows and buildings as multiple police cars were parked outside the Nebula store and around City Hall as some officers were on pursuit to catch the criminals. Shadow and Knuckles decided to lay low to not attract attention that was until their two rivals arrived on the scene.
"Oh my, Tails, looks like our famous agents are still as rambunctious as before!" Sonic said with a smile.
Next chapter is coming up soon!~
