Dark and being late at night, three figures are making their way through the streets in the market. The first being a bat, the second a hedgehog and the third an echidna… Rouge, Amy and Julie-Su but all three of them dressed in brown rags. As you can see, Rouge and her friends did enjoy a bit of the palace life but they also went out in secrecy to enjoy a bit of the life on the streets and their first stop was at a local dance bar.
"Is this really such a good idea?" Amy asked, nervously.
Rouge pulled up her brown handkerchief for her head, "I'm sure, as long as no one knows who we are, alright? Come on." She led the way inside as her friends followed her. Meanwhile on the other side of the bar where the exit was, some other three figures came out of the darkness. This time, it was Shadow, Sonic and Knuckles, but… they seemed to be dressed in fancy tuxedoes. Shadow had only a black jacket with black sunglasses as Sonic had an orange tux with a top hat and so did Knuckles but his was blue instead of orange and the two both had walking canes.
"Boys, as long as you remember the plan, we got to do it this way." Shadow winked to them.
"Man, this suit is uncomfortable." Sonic scratched a bit at his.
"Get used to it; you'll be wearing it the whole night." Knuckles only got a cane poke as a response. Shadow, rolling his eyes, led the way inside as his two companions kept poking each other with canes.
"Orders' up, ladies!" A bar tender, looking like a grizzly, sent out three milkshakes of strawberry, vanilla and chocolate. Rouge sighed, taking her white milkshake. She did enjoy sneaking out but something was still bugging her.
"I know I shouldn't be doing this behind Daddy's back but I can't help it." She frowned as Julie-Su, seated next to her, sipped her chocolate drink, "I feel something's still missing."
"It's about that dream with that mysterious prince, isn't it?" The pink echidna asked, "Rouge, you've been having that dream for a while and yet, you've still done nothing about it."
"That's true and with all the…" Amy gestured to a group of random male Mobians, she smiled, "Guys here, you can't miss a chance."
The bat just frowned again, "Amy, you do realize those are the type of guys who think they can do stuff for women and take advantage." She spun back in her chair again, "I might never find the right guy for me."
"Looks, as long as you girls are talking about a guy for both of you, leave me out cause I doubt I need a guy for me." Julie-Su laughed quietly at her own joke and then asked, taking a look at Rouge's unfinished shake and then Amy's. "Is either one of you going to finish those?" Amy hugged her strawberry shake protectively.
The Princess-in-disguise however pushed hers to her friend, sighing, "Go ahead and enjoy yourself. Besides, I already had enough with vanilla since that waffle incident this morning." She grimaced a bit.
"Suit yourself." After she had gulped down the vanilla shake, Julie-Su sighed, "As for me? I'm starting to cut loose."
"Jeez, you can never get over the fact you're not Head Captain of the Guard Army, now can you?" Rouge rolled her eyes, "Daddy wouldn't think of it."
"He'd have to at some point, wouldn't he?" Julie-Su scowled, "What do you think I've been bitching about? Training myself to get at least a small chance, something to show that show-off Head Captain what I'm made of and-"
"Julie, you'll give us away!" Amy yelped, trying to calm down her friend.
"Face it, girls." Rouge shook her head, "We all have silly dreams…"
"Yeah, silly stupid dreams…" The female echidna agreed.
Meanwhile, towards the back of the room, Shadow had entered looking like a regular man in causal business… if only it weren't for his pals' cane-fighting each other. "Guys…" he said, unimpressed.
Sonic stopped for a minute, "Okay, okay, okay…" But then he got poked in the back by Knuckles' cane, "Cripes!"
"Yes, yes! Yes-!" But then Knuckles' hat got knocked off by the blue hedgehog, who walked by him, satisfied but the echidna, feeling ticked, whacked his back with his cane, as Sonic cried out, "Augh!" and fell over as Knuckles snickered, "Time-out!"
Shadow face-palmed, his friends were so dense these days but then he took notice of the huge bar and the crowds there, "Ah, yes. Everything's just so… gritty." He rubbed his hands together, as both his friends suddenly had a look of worry on their faces. Somehow they had a bad feeling about this whole thing.
"10 minutes, then we am-scray, right?" Sonic asked, "I mean, Jet is going to kill us if he finds out we spent most of the money on this."
"Relax, boys." Shadow gestured to himself, "Just say this was all my idea."
"That's because it is," said Knuckles, confused a little.
"Besides, it's not like anyone is going to know who we are." Shadow then fixed his sunglasses and smirked, "Come on, boys. What do you say?" He and his friends then went inside, "Let's take ourselves a walk on the wild side for once."
Then, an announcement came on over the bar speaking-line, "6:15, everyone. Time to dance." Everyone started getting up, except for Rouge.
"Rouge, aren't you going to dance too?" Amy asked her friend.
"Sorry, Pinky. I'm leaving out this time." Rouge said. Julie-Su, concerned a bit, took Amy's hand and led her away from Rouge to give her alone time. Then the music started as everyone is dancing in exactly the same way, which just made them look like robots. At this time, Shadow was searching around the room for a girl who might be feeling left outand then spotted the white bat sitting by herself, looking down in depression. It seemed close enough to what he expected, she'd do fine.
"Now step back, boys." Shadow began to build a confident look, "Time to ask one of the beggar girls for that dance." As he walked on, Sonic and Knuckles looked at each other…
"Is he…?"
"Yep." Sonic nodded, looking doubtful. Shadow couldn't last with any woman.
Rouge was still in her own world unknowing of the black hedgehog's approaching behind her, "My god, everyone's just so stupid. I mean, who in their right minds would want to do something as awkward as…?"
"Hi, you want to dance?" a cool voice spoke behind her. The bat turned to disagree but as soon as she caught sight of… this attractive looking Mobian with black fur, eyes of rubies and a cool air about him, she paused before speaking, "I'm sorry, what was I saying?"
Shadow raised an eyebrow before he went off, gesturing to Rouge, "Follow me."
Rouge then got up to take a look at him, "That's odd; I don't remember seeing anyone like you in the market place."
"Well, I really don't get out so much," Shadow answered, shrugging; "Yu might say I'm from outside of the city."
"Outside of the city?" Rouge chuckled, "I hear there's a lot out there and such else." She came up next to him in dancing place, "Despite the facts of those wanting only… that thing in relation."
He gave an odd look, "Uh, right."
Rouge feebly tried to dance it off, possibly to already impress this man… until her foot got stepped on, "Yeowch!" She squeaked and then noticed Shadow looking at her in question. "I mean, uh… yeowch!" She shrugged, "You know, yeowch?" Then, she took his hand as they spun a bit and she slowly repeated once again, in a sort of soft voice, "Yeowch…"
Shadow pulled away a bit, "Alright, what on earth do you think you're doing?"
"Telling the truth," Rouge made a few dance steps of her own, "I'm sort of making this up."
"Really?" Shadow, feeling a beat, began to almost copy her moves in dancing.
"I mean, it's not really fair that everyone has to dance the same way, and it gets boring." Rouge began to feel the same beat as well, along with this hedgehog, "It's not really expressive and such…"
"It's… no fun."
And with that, the two began dancing in their own fashion, enjoying the music that had someone raised up a beat and began playing all jazzy. Julie-Su and Amy were also noticing the music and then spotted their friend actually dancing, with a man! Julie-Su seemed to look proud while Amy smiled happily for her friend. As Shadow and Rouge kept dancing, becoming the center of attention, even Sonic and Knuckles took notice. Their pal, boogying with an actual woman. Rouge and Shadow, despite feeling stares at them, were having the time of their lives with both of them grinning and the bat smiled, doing a backwards moon walk type of dance… until the music stopped at a record scratch after she had bumped into a hippo and fell, looking up and smiling sheepishly, "I'm sorry."
"Hey, you should watch your step, lady." The hippo said, not happy.
Shadow poked him in the chest glaring, "If she needs to watch her step, you need to watch your manners."
Rouge popped up between them, "It's okay, I got this, sir. Thank you." She began pushing Shadow in the other direction and then quietly asked him, "Are you crazy? You couldn't take on someone like him."
"Have you ever learned to defend yourself?" Shadow wanted to also know, seeing that the bat couldn't fend on her own or…
"Hey, you two." A scowling lemur came up to the pair, "The Poors aren't supposed to dance with the Riches."
Shadow and Rouge looked at each other, as the bat stuttered with what she had to say but Shadow, frowning, spoke it for her, "Since when weren't we allowed to?"
"Y-yes, that's right." Rouge also frowned, "What's wrong with a Poor and a Rich to spend time together?"
"What you talking about?" The lemur frowned.
"We got some trouble makers…" a snake hissed, as a very large and angry pig came up pushing the snake and lemur aside, "Buckle up, kiddies."
"Now, now boys…" Rouge and Shadow began backing up a bit, knowing better then to mess with a mad pig, as the fist pulled back.
"This one goes to all the lazy peoples here!"
Shadow and Rouge yelped as the fist came down… only to be blocked by another hand, that belonging to Julie-Su, who smirked and frowned at the same time.
"You really need to watch that behavior of yours, piggy."
His face came right into hers, "Oh what you gonna do?" He snorted, "You're just a girly…" But then the next thing he didn't expect, Julie-Su's hand came into his face and he found himself upside down into the broken drum set and stars came out for him.
She chuckled, "Didn't I tell you-?" But then a punch came into her cheek by the lemur. Julie-Su seemed shocked at first but then grew angry, "…Oh no you DIDN'T!" She punched the lemur back, as this suddenly started up a bar fight. Amy grew worried as Sonic and Knuckles got onto one of the tables to avoid getting involved. The bar fight grew furious and Rouge soon found herself in the middle of it and watched Shadow standing there, seeming to try and find a way out of this mess. She went to help him but got knocked backward underneath the table. Julie-Su came to her side, "You alright?"
Sonic, on top of the same table with Knuckles, unknowing of the girls underneath called, "Shadow! Yo, Shads! The guards are coming!" Rouge watched as the black hedgehog seemed to respond and took on the sunglasses. She looked surprised; he looked so familiar all of a sudden!
"Let's get out of here!" Shadow called, leading the way as the blue hedgehog and red echidna jumped and followed after him. Rouge got up, "Wait a minute!"
"Rouge!" Julie-Su followed her friend who was chasing the boys who ran for the exit and caught the bat by the arm, "Rouge, what are you doing?"
"But he's… he looks like someone…" Rouge pointed and spoke softly.
"You've seen everyone in the market. What does one person make a difference?"
"But I feel like I've seen him somewhere."
The pink echidna sighed, "I'm sorry, Rouge… but it's only one time. I'm sorry." She led her friend out of the way, "Come on."
"Wait!" Amy followed them outside of the bar, as the fight raged onward. Rouge sighed, only thinking of the strange black hedgehog… little did she know he might be thinking about the white bat too…
