This is a fanfiction, and as such, most of the characters in the story are not mine. Most characters are © Sega, and are not used with permission.

Chapter 2: Moving In

Shadow returned to Knothole and sought out Sally, hoping that she would go along with Rouge's payment options. He found her and Bunnie in Sonic's hut.

"What are you two doing here?"

"We're trying to work out the sleeping arrangements. Since this hut is empty, you or Bunnie can have it. She says she wouldn't mind sharing it, since there aren't many other places around here, except for the barracks."

Shadow wasn't to keen on the idea just thrown in his face. "Wait a minute."

Bunnie leapt over to him. "What's wrong? Yah don't want to stay with me?"

Shadow turned to Sally. "This is Sonic's hut, isn't er, wasn't it?"

"Yes."

Shadow started to switch his attention back and forth between the two girls. "I have no problem with sharing a hut. I wouldn't even mind sharing it with a girl. And since I kind of like you, I would definitely consider sharing a hut with you, Bunnie. But I am not sleeping in Sonic's hut! You can stay here if you want, but I'm not."

Shadow stormed out, with Bunnie and Sally in pursuit.

"I'm sorry, if there was another place I would offer it."

"Look, I understand that you're only trying to help, but I'm not going to sleep in his hut. I'd rather sleep up in a tree then there. In fact, I kind of like sleeping in trees, it's so peaceful."

Shadow started to scan the green roofs of the trees when he notices some foreign objects in the branches. "What are those things?"

"What, the watch posts? We built those up there to watch for any of Robotnik's troops coming through the woods. Those aren't used much because we have more placed out and around."

"Do you mind if I look at one."

"No but…"

With that, Shadow took off, using his phase run to bounce from tree to tree until he had reached one of the tree houses.

* * *

It was small, more like a large shack with windows, but Shadow really didn't consider spending much time here, he just wanted a quiet place to rest his head. He took a few paces around to get a feel for it, and laid down on the hard wooden floor. After a minute, Sally and Bunnie had made their way up the rope ladder to the post.

"Man these are small. Why would yah want to stay here?"

"I don't care about the size, I only want to sleep here. I'll be down for most of the day."

"Then I hope yah don't mind coming to Sonic's hut for a meal now and then, sugah."

"I guess not."

"Good, now if ya'll excuse me, I've got tah get down; I'm getting a might bit dizzy up here."

Sally sighed. "Well, I guess that's settled. Oh, how did things go with Rouge?"

"Decent, I suppose, but she's asking for a lot."

"How much?"

"Basically, if we win and get your old home back, she wants a cut of any treasure, say any royal jewels."

Sally hah'ed that idea. "Just how much do you think we had?"

"Well, you are a princess. I figured you must have had some stash."

Sally thought back. Mobotropolis was beautiful, made of the finest cut marble and the castle interior was lined with gold and valuable gemstones. And yes, the royal family did have a significant fortune, not that it mattered right now. But if they won, Rouge could easily take a hundred armloads of gold and jewellery and still barely make a dent in the royal vaults, that's if they could be recovered.

"I figure we must have enough to satisfy even her, if we can ever get it back. Fine, go back and tell her that I'll give her several chests of jewels if she helps us stop Robotnik, but I want some assurance that she can deliver. I'd hate to put my faith in someone I haven't even met yet."

"I can understand that; I'm still surprised that you trust me."

* * *

A couple of hours later, Shadow sought Rouge again to confirm Sally's offer.

Rouge had found a small waterfall and was taking the opportunity to get a quick shower. The forest, aside from being large was also very dirty; and despite remaining in the air for the most part, Rouge did get rather filthy. Besides, all that flying did work up a bit of a sweat, or perspiration in Rouge's case. She washed the lather from her form, scrubbing over her fur to clean any trace of filth infringing on her otherwise perfect body. Across her delicate arms, over her tight stomach, down her shapely legs, her hands visited every square millimetre until she was as pure as newly fallen snow.

"My goodness, this is quite a pretty picture isn't it?"

Rouge turned back in shock to see Shadow ogling her naked form. Quickly she tried to hide herself by sitting down into the water and wrapping her arms around her chest.

"You sick bastard! How dare you?"

"What are you talking about? If I were a sick bastard, then I wouldn't be here watching you, I'd probably totally ignore you and your lovely body."

Rouge giggled. "You do have a point."

She turned away from Shadow, but stayed sitting in the water, only giving Shadow a good look at her bare back and wings, but nothing else.

"So, what did your little princess say about my payment?"

"She'll go for it. She promised you several chests, somewhere between five and ten depending on how good you are, filled with gold and jewels."

"How big?"

"About the size of that rock over there."

"Which rock?"

"The rock that you laid your clothes on."

Rouge looked at the rock, it was a pretty good size; easily big enough for her to crawl into and then some. It was a good rock, but it could have been better; it could have had her clothes on it. Rouge looked back to see Shadow displaying her former garments.

"What do you think? Could I pull this off?"

Rouge flew into a tirade. "You pervert! Give me back my clothes!"

She had almost forgotten that she wasn't wearing anything and came within inches of giving Shadow a real good look at her. Shadow giggled a bit at Rouge's modesty, very few people in Knothole wore clothes, including him. Most of the girls relied solely on their fur for cover, Sally herself was a princess and only wore a vest and shoes, and there were times that she didn't bother with the vest. Bunnie was one of the most clothed people in the whole forest; she wore jeans that were cut off at the legs and a white shirt, but instead of buttoning it up, she simply tied it together in a knot just below her breasts.

"So, what's your answer? Are you going to help us, or not?"

Rouge was furious, and was half ready to go over there despite her undressed state and beat the living daylights out of the black hedgehog. But she knew he could avoid her, and she wanted her clothes back.

"Alright, I'll do it, just give me back my clothes."

Shadow quickly delivered her outfit back to the rock it was on before and zipped back to where he was. Rouge cautiously crept over the rock making sure to reveal as little as possible to the freak. She took a pair of white panties and slipped them on, fully knowing that Shadow was watching her as she stood up. After the panties came her black suit with the pink heart over the chest.

Sufficiently dressed, Rouge turned towards her dark visitor. "Is this how you get your jollies?"

"No, but I think I have a new hobby."

"So, when do I start? And one other thing, I work alone."

"As to your later point, that shouldn't be a problem. To the former, we still have a few terms to work out. Princess Sally wants to meet you in person, and she wants a little test, just to make sure you're up to snuff."

"A test? Well, obviously you people must be in the dark to not know of the legendary Rouge the Bat!"

"Don't look at me, but Sally's a princess, all she used to care about was the condition of the caviar at snack time. Anyway, she wants to 'have an audience' with you face to face; it's a royalty thing."

"Fine. I'll tell her off to her face, the stuck up wench. Where is she?"

"In one hour, be at the large plateau at the base of the Soleiu Mountains, about one mile directly south of here."

"An hour? She must be losing it, usually these royal types keep you waiting for days."

Shadow smirked, "Her hair appointment got cancelled."

"Ha, ha, very funny. Fine, one hour, the base of mountains."

* * *

Shadow sped off back to Knothole while Rouge sat down on a rock to put on the rest of her outfit. First her gloves, then her left boot. She took her right boot in her hands and examined it for a minute.

"Good, he didn't find it."

Rouge opened a small compartment on the bottom of the shoe and pulled out a small electronic device. Pressing a button or two on it, she spoke into it.

"I've just had a rather pleasant run in with Shadow again. I've got a meeting planned with him and the princess in one hour at the Soleiu Mountains. After some little test of theirs, I should be in. Over."

* * *

"The Soleiu Mountains? An interesting spot."

The large chair spun around to reveal a large smile on Dr. Robotnik's face. "In one hour, I will have either the location of Knothole, or at the very least princess Sally and that newcomer, then I'll extract the information from them."

"Rouge, make sure you play nice with the princess now, we're getting too close to slip up now. Over"

For a speaker on the console, Rouge's voice cackled through. "Don't worry about me, I'll have her eating out of my hands. Just make sure you've got my payment ready. Over and Out."

Robotnik looked up at the view screen showing the image of the black hedgehog.

"Computer, rename profile 'H49' as 'Shadow'."

"Very soon, my black friend, you will be mine, and I will discover just what strange power you have."

The vile mechanic started to laugh most hideously.

To be continued