CHAPTER 4

Meanwhile at the Chaotix detective agency in Tech City, Risa's face was inches away from Ker's while she stared at him in both interest and excitement. "Wow! A real human! I can't believe it!"

Ker along with everyone else in the lobby gave each other uneasy looks from Risa's reaction.

He took a step back from her nervously, "Uh well not technically..."

"Demon", she spoke quickly. "Right I know but it's amazing! You look like a human though! So cool!" She then felt someone place their hands on her shoulders and gently backed her away from the nervous demon.

"Uh, Risa?"

The lemur turned to Freya who gave her a nervous look. "I know you're excited to meet Ker and all but give him some space will ya?"

"Oh right! Demons need their space too!" She stepped away from him and glanced around the main lobby of the agency. "Freya, I can't believe you work here and doing a job like this!" She turned back to her, "Killing demons right?"

Freya formed a small smile, "Well sorta." She looked over to who was sitting behind the front desk of the lobby, "Eh right, boss?"

Shadow sat behind the front desk in the lobby with his arm rested on the desk and his hand resting his head. He shifted his eyes over to her in annoyance, "I can't believe you told your annoying friend about us..."

Risa flashed her eyes over to the black and red hedgehog and placed her hands on her hips. "Wow! How rude!"

Freya rested her hand on Risa's shoulder. "Oh he's a little hard to get along with at first but he's super nice when you get to know him!"

Risa rose an eyebrow as she couldn't really believe her since Shadow was already coming off as rude towards her. "Really? Cause he sounds like a total dick right now."

Shadow slowly took his hand away from his head, "Hey, Risa?"

She turned back to him with an irritated look, "Yeah?"

"Do you...your voice...do you always sound like that? Or is it just a nasal problem?"

Risa was aware that she carried a high pitch and energetic voice. It made her sound like she was actually talking through her nose but not exactly. No one ever spoke anything negative about it until now. She slowly turned away from him and back to an uneasy Freya. "Yeah Freya, your manager is a total ass."

"I..." A sweat drop formed on the side of Freya's head. She was trying to think of a way to defend him but couldn't quite think of the first thing to say nice about him at the moment. "I know..."

"Hey despite Mr Grumpypants over there the rest of us are actually pretty friendly!" Tikal spoke out with a wide smile on her face while she stood next to Nails.

Risa pointed to the two and turned to Freya, "Hey do they work here too?"

Freya shook her head. She completely forgot about to mention Nails and Tikal to her. She only told Risa about everyone who actually worked at the Chaotix. "No they're just good friends. That's Nails and Tikal. Tikal is a physical ancient spirit and Nails is a professional witch and also Rouge's older sister."

A look of interest formed in Risa's eyes, "A witch and a spirit? This is so cool!"

Espio was leaning against the desk Shadow was sitting behind with his arms crossed. "Risa", he called. "It's great you're being supportive of Freya and all but please. Only a few know about our actual job and what we really do."

"Yeah", Shadow agreed. " So we'd appreciate it if you kept your big yap shut."

Risa crossed her arms in irritation. It was no surprise really that they didn't trust her to keep her word because this was everyone's first day meeting her. "Hey! You barely even know me and you think I have the biggest mouth in the world!"

A sweat drop formed on the side of Freya's head, "Risa, you're not exactly the quietest person around."

Risa's mouth hung open in disbelief, "Freya! What kind of person do you think I am! I promise you have nothing to worry! Your secret is safe with me!"

Shadow couldn't help but to slightly sigh and roll his eyes as he felt doubtful that Risa would keep her mouth shut. He then felt a light nudge on the shoulder from Rouge who stood next to him.

She leaned over to him and whispered softly in his ear, "Oh stop it already."

He slightly turned to her and saw a confident look on her face.

She softly pressed her lips against his cheek. "Everything will be fine."

He placed his hand on her waist and gently nudged her body close to his. "I hope you're right."

She had got the hint that he wanted her to sit on his lap so she did as he wanted.

Everyone then heard a baby crying back within the agency.

Rouge sighed heavily, "Looks like Spike woke up from his nap..."

Freya quickly spun around to her, "Don't get up, Miss Rouge! I'll check on him for you if you want!"

Rouge was surprised that Freya had wanted to check on Spike for her. "Oh? Well thank you, Freya. He's in Shad's office."

"No problem, Miss Rouge!" She turned to Risa, "Come on! I want you to meet Spike!"

"Sure I'd love to! I love babies!" When the two of them walked into Shadow's office, they saw the small crib the crying baby was in.

Freya walked over to the crib towards the crying child. "Aw, Spike. What's wrong now, buddy?"

When Risa saw Freya lean over to the crib to care for Spike, her eyes wandered around the fairly big office.

The walls were pretty empty but she looked down at the desk and spotted different papers scattered everywhere and a few of Shadow's belongings like his keys, a half of cup full of coffee, and a couple packs of cigarettes. She glanced over to a picture frame that had a picture of Shadow and Rouge at their wedding and another picture was a group picture of the detectives. Everyone she had met was already in the picture except the green male crocodile, a young black and yellow male bee, and of course Freya. she couldn't help but to wonder what had happened to the other two detectives.

She glanced over to Freya who was holding Spike in her arms and made sure he had calmed down. Risa stood beside her and looked down at the now giggling hedgehog in Freya's arms. "He's such a cutie pie! Definitely not having the same personality of his dad."

Freya held the child close to her and turned to Risa with a serious look. "...Hey Risa, you do know that Shadow is a half demon right?"

She made a slow nod, "I believe you told me that..." Yes Freya had told her of The Dark Alliance and demons. So of course she told her about Ker and Shadow. She like Freya was terrified of finding out what they truly were at first, but she tried to look at them as regular people and nothing more. She looked down at the baby hedgehog, "Since Shadow is a demon, I suppose he is too?"

Freya slowly shook her head, "No one can put their finger on it but Spike...he came out completely normal. Not a shred of demon is in him."

Risa gave her a doubtful look. "...How do you all know for sure?"

She began to explain, "Well apparently demons can sense each other whenever they're around. When Spike was born, Shadow and Ker both couldn't sense any demonic energy coming from him. They felt nothing..."

"I see..."

"I know we didn't get it either. Especially when Rouge had such an abnormal pregnancy."

Risa rose an eyebrow in curiosity, "Abnormal?"

"Rouge was only pregnant for four months technically."

Risa's eyes widened in surprise, "Oh wow..."

Freya made a nod, "We know..."

"Okay so if Spike isn't a demon, then what is he? If Rouge went through such a fast pregnancy, then there has to be something special about him."

"We...don't know but...for now he's a regular mortal baby."

Risa looked down to the floor and then back at Freya as terrifying thoughts suddenly rushed into her head. "...Freya, Shadow and Ker..."

Freya knew where Risa was going with her question and she stopped her before she could finish. "Shadow and Ker would never hurt anyone. So please don't ever think of them like that. They aren't like the rest of the demons out there. I assure you. They have souls."

Risa made a slow nod and felt like if Freya wasn't afraid of them then she wouldn't be either. "If you say it's okay then I will take your word for it."

She made a wide smile until she heard Spike about to cry again. "I should get him to Rouge. I think he's hungry."

"Yeah", Risa agreed. Once the two got back into the lobby with Spike, they saw Shadow standing in front of the group looking as thought he was making an important announcement.

The group turned to them when they walked in.

"What's going on?" Freya asked.

Espio placed his hands in his pants pockets, "New orders."

"We just recieved an email from Mayor Wish saying she wants us all to get together for some kind of meeting tomorrow night", Shadow explained.

"Apparently she wants all four detective teams to be there and accounted for", Midnight added.

Freya arched an eyebrow in surprise. "Hold on...all four? There's more? Of us?"

Appex placed his hands on the back of his head, "Duh!"

"Yeah", Tonya spoke. "With all of us under one roof, I'd say it'll be one hell of a party."

Ker placed a finger to his chin, "Now that I've thought about it, neither of us has met any of the other team members except Shadow and Espio."

Espio crossed his arms, "To be honest, Shad and I have only met the leaders and captains. The rest of the members have never met us or anyone else for that matter. If anything they've only heard of us..."

A worried look suddenly formed on Shadow's face, "Which brings me to another matter..." He turned back to the group, "I suppose we all know that the other leaders and captains aren't very fond of me all for the sake that I am half demon."

Risa shrugged their shoulders, "I don't see what the big deal is if they know about you."

Midnight turned to the confused lemur, "That's not the issue at all. They exactly don't really trust Shadow..."

"But Mayor Wish approves of him", Freya spoke. "If she thinks everything is okay shouldn't they?"

Rouge stood next to Shadow and gently placed a hand on his shoulder in comfort before he spoke out again.

He slightly sighed, "Freya, you don't understand. They all hate me. They hate the fact that I'm working on the Council and especially hate the fact that I'm running a detective agency with not your average everyday detectives."

Rouge made a saddened look, "It's frustrating that Shadow has to deal with their gossip and neglect against him."

Risa gave him a sympathetic look, "That's so sad. They're not giving you a chance to prove them wrong at all?"

Shadow slightly shrugged, "I don't care what they think of me. I have to work with them and that's all. And since they all have a grudge against me, expect to get the same treatment."

Everyone had given him worried looks.

He couldn't help but to slightly clench his fists by his sides in anger as he could only imagine the hell he and the rest of the group would walk into tomorrow night. "To them, we're the black sheep team in the district. They look down on us as nothing but freaks."

Freya bit her lip slightly as he bluntly put his words. As she thought about it, he was right. There was something going on with everyone in the team and she was just another freak apparently.

"The best advice I can give you all when you're at the meeting tomorrow night is try to remain professional."

Tikal noticed the awkward silence afterwards and decided to take their minds off of the negative aspects of what was going on. "Well despite the drama between everyone, I still think it's exciting for all the teams to come together for the first time." She sighed, "I wish Nails and I could go."

Nails placed her hand on her shoulder and rubbed it, "Don't worry. I'm sure we'll meet them all eventually."

Rouge watched as Freya walked over to her and handed her Spike. "Well with all of us together, I'm sure tomorrow night will be interesting."

"Definitely", Shadow agreed. "I just wonder what the big emergency is anyway."

Later that night on the outskirts of Tech City, the old and fragile door to an abandoned orphanage had cracked open. A male white bat peeked his head inside to make sure the inside was completely abandoned. When he thought the coast was clear, he slowly stepped inside and gently shut the door behind him.

He began to slowly and carefully walk around the main hall of the dark, dusty, and cold run down building. He thought this would be a good place for him to stay out of sight from the police who wanted him for being a rogue detective and now a wanted criminal. He thought he should check all the rooms before he got too comfortable within the orphanage. He came to a closed door and braced himself before he opened it. Once he looked inside of the room, all he saw was an old room that had at least six small beds in it for the children that once slept there. Before he could take another step inside of the room, he suddenly heard the laughter of a child. Startled he looked out of the room and back down the hallway. He turned and saw a young white rabbit girl with long white hair that came past her waist standing at the end of the hallway.

The child appeared to be around ten years old at least. She wore a black and white long sleeve lace goth styled lolita dress with black mary jane dress shoes. She was looking down at the dirty cracked floor while she licked from a lollipop that she had held in her hand.

This puzzled him. A child was there. A child still resided in the abandoned orphanage? That was impossible. Something wasn't right and he had a terrible feeling about it. He couldn't help but to feel that something was off abut her. "H-Hey!"

The child stopped licking the lollipop she had and paused while he called out to her.

"Little girl! What are you doing here?"

The child once again let out a small giggle and slowly looked away from the floor.

When he saw her look up at him, he saw that her eyes were a menacing red color. It practically looked like they were glowing. His heart skipped a beat as he caught sight of her eyes. Before he could say anything else, he saw her run around the corner and continue to giggle. He didn't know what was going on but he had to find out. "Wa-wait!" He began to run after her. Once he got down to the end of the hallway to where she was, he didn't see where she had run off to. He turned and saw a door to another room closed. He figured that's where the little girl had went. He decided to go through the door to see what had lied on the otherside. He glanced around the fairly big room when he stepped inside.

The room was another dark and gloomy part of the orphanage. However with the colorful walls and a few children's toys scattered across the dirty rug, he figured it used to be the children's play area. A shiver went down his spine as he observed the splatters of old blood on the walls and on the rug he had walked on. Just what in God's name happened here? And was anyone still staying within the orphanage?

He shut the door behind him when he spotted the little girl he was following sitting on the floor across from him with her back turned to him. He heard sniffling coming from her. He thought that she was crying, he slowly approached her. "Hey", he called in a soft voice while he slowly reached out to her. "Don't be afraid..." His eyes shot open when he spotted a puddle of blood setting in front of the girl.

Her head had then looked up from the floor, "I'm not afraid", she spoke. She slowly stood from the floor and turned to the white bat while holding what appeared to be what was left of a heart in her hand and blood dripping from her mouth. She had a hungry look on her face, "But you should be", she growled while exposing her fangs to him.

Once he saw her spin around to him, he immediately stepped away from her. "Shit! A demon!" Before he could run back to the door he came from, a dark figure had jumped in front of him and the door. He laid his eyes upon a male gray fox wearing formal attire standing in front of him. "Luthor!" When he took out his scythe, he was quickly knocked to the floor with a powerful punch to the face by the demonic fox.

"Don't think about it, baby fangs", he had growled.

When he fell to the floor so did his scythe.

The young demonic girl kicked the scythe to the otherside of the room and out of his reach.

The bat kneeled to the floor not knowing what to do with him being surrounded by two powerful demons. When he looked, he saw the demonic girl kneeling in front of him while hungrily licking her bloody lips.

"We've been waiting for you, Sky-sama!"

In The Next Chapter...

Sky: What's happening? Am I...going to die?

Dark: So you are still alive...

Sky: Dark Demon...

Dark: You betray me, Sky...

Midnight: What? I don't understand what you're saying, Freya!

Freya: Midnight, I...