It was mid-afternoon when the group was done answering questions given by the G.U.N. troops. Exhausted from their journey – some more from their battles – they went back to the hideout and waited for further instructions. Upon entering, the group saw Kent sitting on the couch.
"Hello, everybody."
Vector and Espio were silent, not expecting for them to run into him at this hour.
"I figured that it was a good time to catch up on what just happened."
Kent's face said it all – he was annoyed to say the least.
"Why don't you guys…make do somewhere else," Espio said to Shadow and Charmy, knowing that this meeting will be tedious.
The duo agreed and headed towards the kitchenette, while the detectives joined Kent near the couch.
"So, you found the culprit…nice work."
"…Well, thanks, but you don't sound too happy about it."
"Oh, not really…" Kent said before flipping the big screen down to reveal a prompt announcement being done by Tower live.
Shadow's attention went towards the screen. "What in the–"
"Shh, Shadow, you're distracting me."
The hedgehog sighed a bit as he heard Charmy, who took it upon himself to draw on the far side of the table. Shadow got up and joined the crew by the couch to listen.
"Today, it is with great pride to state that we, the Guardian Units of Nations, have successfully captured a criminal and have him hostage with us. He will be sent to Prison Island and will remain in captivity for some time…"
"Hmph, let's hope that he's there for death," Shadow muttered.
"At this time, I would like to congratulate the following members of G.U.N. that today risked their lives in search of the suspect…"
"Turn it off."
Kent turned towards Shadow, a bit bewildered at his statement.
"I don't want to listen."
Kent obeyed and turned the screen off, and then focused his attention on the hedgehog.
"Are you…Shadow the Hedgehog, by chance?"
"Yeah, what's it to you?"
An outstretched hand towards Shadow was met with, "Kent Demanco, former agent at G.U.N."
Shadow looked disgusted. "Should I be proud of that?"
Kent pulled his hand away. "Well, I figured that–"
"Did you not just watch the announcement? We're not given any credit for risking our lives to go find Gernot and bringing him to justice. Sorry, but I refuse to have my work dismantled."
With that, Shadow departed to the dining room table.
"Ignore him," Espio said. "He's not too happy with this whole fiasco at the moment."
"…Neither am I."
Vector was the one to speak up. "How come? We did what you wanted us to do–"
"Yeah, good…but I expected more from–"
"Like what, bringing him to you? Do you have any idea what happened to us?"
The silence that followed proved to be too much for Vector to handle.
"You used us, just to get ahead. A few detectives desperate for work, and you called for us."
"…Well, you needed the work, so I provided you guys with–"
"Work that made the both of us be on edge this entire time."
Vector stood up. "Sorry, but…we're done."
Kent was a bit astonished. "Yeah, you guys completed the mission – you'll get paid, and then–"
"Are you not listening? We're done with you, for good."
Espio, who was biting his lip for the duration of the talk, now stood up to speak.
"We don't work for people who won't allow the whole team to be here."
Kent stood up at that statement. "You're telling me that Charmy would have helped you guys out in any of this?"
"No idea, but what we do know now is that he's more of an asset than a liability…and anyone who doesn't see that, well, sorry."
Feeling disgruntled, Kent walked towards the exit, but turned to face the detectives one last time.
"You'll have one more night here, and then you leave. Payment will be at your place tomorrow."
With that, Kent was gone.
Nighttime passed for the group, and daytime followed just as smoothly. Making a pit stop at Shadow's place to grab Charmy's belonging, they made their way back to the Chaotix headquarters. Upon arriving, three businessmen were standing outside their door, a black car parked right near their house.
"Mr. Demanco would like for us to give you this 10,000 coin sum for completing phase two of the overall mission. He thanks you of your services, and hopes to hear–"
"You're good."
Vector snatched the briefcase from the businessman's hand and hugged it close to his chest. His interruption might have been rude, but to him, he didn't care in the slightest.
"Thanks again," Espio said.
Another businessman walked over and headed over to Charmy, who was currently with Shadow a ways back from them.
"Are you Charmy Bee?" he asked, bending down.
"That's correct."
He handed the briefcase to the honeybee. "G.U.N. provides you 1,000 rings were given to you in aiding with Shadow the Hedgehog, a worker at G.U.N., with this mission and in the prior mission as well."
Charmy was speechless; payment just for him, all for helping Shadow out?
"Well, thanks," Charmy said before grabbing the briefcase.
With that, the businessmen all piled into the car and drove away.
"Hey, look what I got," Charmy said, holding the briefcase proudly in his hands.
Luckily for Charmy, before Vector could come and tackle him for it, Espio made haste to take it.
"Aww, but why?"
"We'll take care of it, don't worry."
Charmy pouted, but agreed.
A few seconds passed as Vector, now done hugging the briefcase, made connection to the other briefcase in his team's possession.
"Wait, when did we–"
"Charmy received it while you were busy treasuring your money."
"Yeah, it's mine, and it's all because I helped Shadow!"
The hedgehog turned his head and slightly nodded.
"Is that true, Shadow?"
"Hmph," was the only response that Espio was going to get from him.
"Well, all's well that ends well, right?" Vector asked.
Espio looked up at Vector and nudged his head towards Charmy. The croc sighed a bit before kneeling down.
"Hey, Charmy…look, we're sorry for not letting you know right up front where Espio and I were going. Had we known better, we would have stayed and fought for you to come along."
Charmy smiled and hugged the croc. "It's alright."
"We're good?" Espio asked.
"Yeah, we're good," Charmy replied, breaking away from Vector and, flying towards Espio, embraced him as well.
"Hey Shadow, thanks for…umm…watching him again," Vector said.
"Hmph."
The detectives, in silence, started to head towards their house. With Espio carrying Charmy's money and Vector carrying the other earning and Charmy's supplies, the honeybee was left to feel a bit of guilt.
"Hey guys, I'll be right back," and before they could ask, Charmy was off to catch up with Shadow, who was already making his way back home.
"Shadow, wait!"
The hedgehog heard Charmy calling him, and letting out a sigh, he stopped and turned to see him flying over.
"What is it?"
Charmy, standing on the ground, looked up at Shadow.
"I'm…sorry for what I put you through these past few days–"
"Save it. I'm fine."
"…Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"…Are you really sure?"
"Yes!"
Charmy flinched a bit at Shadow's response.
"What is it with you – it's almost like you bring annoyance wherever you go, even when you want to apologize for something so petty."
"Why is this something petty to you?"
"It's because I don't care!"
"Really, you don't, because you sure cared a whole lot when you wanted me dead!"
"You had no right to throw my personal life around the way you did!"
"Just like you had no right to keep from me what Vector and Espio were actually doing?"
"Who cares?"
"You obviously did; especially since it was you who told a troop about my doing yesterday."
For the first time, Shadow was silent.
"Yeah, your response to Espio back there wasn't so good. Just…you never said one thing to me positive yesterday – at all! And it hurt to not hear anything, especially when I wanted to help you out so bad–"
"Stop!"
Feeling the youngster on the verge of tears, Shadow had to interrupt. He couldn't stand another minute of Charmy's emotions.
"All I wanted, more than anything, was a simple thank you for what I did…was that so much to ask?"
Turning around after his question, knowing that Shadow didn't want to see him cry, Charmy finally let out the tears that he was holding back for so long.
Shadow closed his eyes, bit his tongue, and breathed. After a couple seconds of allowing Charmy to cry, the hedgehog approached him and grabbed his shoulder.
"Look…you're a below average detective and a decent fighter. In a couple years, you'll improve, and you could be great one day."
Charmy stopped his tears from falling to hear Shadow speak to him.
"You need to stop letting your emotions get the best of you. You aren't going to be crowned every time you do something minuscule."
Shadow silently sighed – it took every fiber in his being to not snap at the moment. Needless to say, he continued on.
"I'm sorry for giving you a hard time, but it's fair to say that you need to learn what I told you to do."
A few seconds went by before Charmy responded.
"I understand. I need to stop being a wimp…"
Turning towards Shadow, Charmy continued on.
"…But you need to understand that I'm a kid, and that I'm going to be annoying and be overly emotional about every little thing. Yeah, I do need to toughen up at some point in time, but–"
Shadow placed his other hand on Charmy's other shoulder.
"I get it. You get it. That's all that matters."
And with that, Shadow stood up and started on his departure once more…
"Oh, wait!"
…And again being stopped by Charmy.
"Yes?"
"Two things: one…"
The honeybee reached into his vest and pulled out a folded piece of paper. Handing it to Shadow, the hedgehog opened it up and was a bit stunned to see what was on it.
It was a picture of him and Charmy – he had the gun, Charmy had the dagger – both posed in mid-air, high-fiving one another. Not a smile to be found anywhere.
"...Wish I could have kept the dagger...some troop took it...stupid."
Shadow decided to ask one small question to over-mask the honeybee's statement.
"You drew this for me?"
A nod by Charmy was all he needed to say.
"Well…" Shadow started, but was then cut off. He was speechless once more.
Charmy contained his smile, and decided to ask his second question.
"So…remember when you said that you let me beat you those twenty-some odd times straight?"
"Yes?"
"Well…how about a rematch. Don't worry, I won't cry; besides, I can learn how to be tough."
Shadow pondered a good minute on this. On one hand, he would be spending the day with Charmy, something he saw never happening again anytime soon after what he experienced. On the other hand, he could use this to teach him…
"I guess."
Charmy squealed, back flipped flying through the air and glomped Shadow.
"Thanks, Shadow! You're the best!"
A few seconds went by before Charmy realized what he just did…
"Sorry," he apologized as he broke the hug.
Shadow silently breathed out and motioned to Charmy. The honeybee, started at first, obeyed and slowly wrapped his arms around the hedgehog's neck. Shadow then gave the youngster a good pat on the shoulder.
"Not a problem," Shadow responded, his willpower to remain calm drastically losing altitude.
Charmy broke free and started to head towards the house, but before he could, Shadow called to him.
"Wait!"
Turning around, Charmy saw a few hand motions made by the hedgehog, pointing to himself, then to him, and then finishing with a thumbs-up.
"Secret…got it."
And with that, Charmy fled off, leaving Shadow to finally depart back to his place.
Opening the door to his home, in the late evening, Shadow arrived with Rouge sitting at the dining room table with a bottle of wine and two glasses near her.
"Well, it's about time you returned."
"Good, just what I wanted…a drink after a long and hectic day."
Shadow popped the cork off the bottle and poured himself and Rouge a glass. Sitting down at the table, the batgirl got off and grabbed two envelopes from the counter.
"These came in for you."
Plopped down on the table, Shadow saw the addresses on them – both of them from G.U.N.
"Wonder what this could be."
Opening the first letter, Shadow read it aloud:
'It is with great pleasure that I appoint you a full-time agent. Take great care of this opportunity, and respect the position with integrity and honor.'
-Abraham Tower, Commander
P.S. – forgiven, but never forgotten. Do her proud.
Shadow looked over at Rouge, who was beaming after hearing the news.
"Well, partner, it's about time," she said, raising her glass.
The hedgehog, containing his emotions, raised his glass as well. Clinking his glass with hers, he responded, "It is about damn time."
After taking a sip of wine, Rouge pointed out that the other envelope was Shadow's temporarily badge, along with a temporarily parking permit, and that he would need to address those to Tower for authorization purposes.
"…What, I've done this before," Rouge responded after seeing Shadow's reaction.
A few seconds passed filled with wine sipping before Rouge decided to show Shadow her plan.
"Do me a favor and look at the frame."
Shadow did as asked, and turning around to see the wooden frame, an infrared beam shot out across left to right.
"Isn't that cool?" Rogue asked.
"…I guess; what is this for?"
"Oh, I found at least ten or so boxes filled with those in Charmy's room. Like, we never noticed we had those before."
Pouring some more wine into his glass, Shadow asked, "Okay, and the point of this is?"
"Well, let's just say that, while you were away, I was making a good scheme come to life…now, a lovely echidna won't have to worry about protecting his emerald."
Seeing the beaming smile on her face, it was time for Shadow to leave. Giving farewell, he marched up to his room; on the way up, he spotted Omega on the couch.
"Greetings, Shadow," he said, turning around to face him on the stairs. "Did the operation go well?"
"Mission accomplished, goodnight."
With that, he left the robot to call the previous few days a successful operation.
Entering his room, he headed over towards his small balcony and, sliding the glass door open, stepped outside to a gorgeous sunset. Sipping his wine, he reminisced on the day that he had.
'Today was something else…can't believe I agreed to play Charmy again, but again, he can learn a thing or two…or three…'
Smirking at the thought, he took another sip before pondering again.
'He's still out there though…trapped, sure, but not dead. I don't care what it takes, Gernot – I'll see that you're dead soon enough.'
Entrapped within Prison Island, off within a separate entity of the prison, hanging from a cage above a pit of water, Gernot looked around at his surroundings.
"Too cozy," he said aloud. "Probably should have made things more difficult for me."
Looking down, he noticed a creature swimming around…
'You'll be my very good friend soon enough…and then, once I'm out, it's off to finish what I should have started long, long ago…'
...And there you have it! A completed multi-chapter story; something that I haven't done since the first time that I joined this site! Thanks to all who have read and reviewed throughout the story - it means a lot to me. Until next time, Pan is out. Thanks again and take care! :)