CHAPTER 7

THE WAY THINGS ARE MEANT TO BE

Later that evening at the hospital in the room where Rouge was recovering, Appex and Lara were talking while she was sleeping.

"Why is he doing this?" Appex wondered.

"He's the ultimate weapon, he wasn't created to just kill people. That's just what he thinks." Lara had pointed out.

"But why does he think that?"

"Blood was the first thing he tasted while at the military, ever since then he wanted more. GUN always bought him out in the forest to see how fast he could hunt down animals."

Appex felt so sorry for Shadow, now he finally understood how he felt, "I feel so sorry for the guy, even if he is a heartless killer deep inside."

Then they both heard moaning coming from the bed.

Rouge was awake, "Appex, Shadow he..."

"We know, don't worry we'll stop him."

Rouge looked beside him and saw Lara looking back at her, "Lara, what are you doing here?"

"I just saved your ass, you owe me big time."

"Shadow, just took away only half of your blood. Thank the lord we got you here on time. In forty minutes later you would have met your fate."

Rouge was so relieved that Appex had cared for her. "What did you find out from the military?"

"It seems that Shadow, had broken in last night and stole back all of his powerful blood."

"Huh? Why?"

"I don't know, maybe it's because he wants to become even stronger than he was before."

"That's terrible if he has all of his powers he would kill every civilian in the city."

"That's why he must be stopped." Lara said.

Rouge nodded, "We have to stop him now."

Appex wasn't sure if she was at full strength yet, "Are you up to it?"

Rouge got from the bed, "Yeah, lets stop Shadow."

Later at the military base Shadow was walking around the hallway that was filled with the horrid experiments. He then spotted the cell that had the carving that said 'Experiment 001.' He smirked, "I'd like to know what this first experiment was like." He looked at the experiment and his eyes widened, "What the hell is that thing!"

The experiment was a white female bat with one devil wing and one angel wing, fangs, and claws.

Shadow backed away a little, "What the freak show?"

"I see you've stumbled into my formal lover."

Shadow jumped and looked behind him. "General Bat."

"No need to be alarmed, Shadow. I don't want to fight you."

Shadow calmed down, "Nice choice."

"I've heard that you've reached the dark side of yourself."

"Your daughter hopefully now realizes it."

"I knew this would happen, but she didn't listen."

Shadow moved on to a different subject, "Why don't you tell me about your first experiment?"

"Ah yes, Trisha, my wife."

"What? Did you say your wife?"

"I know that Rouge has talked about her mother, this creature that you see before you is her."

"That thing is her mother?"

"She never looked that way before of course, but I had the urge to experiment with her and I did after when Rouge was born."

"So you lied to her?"

General Bat nodded his head, "Yes."

Shadow pretended not to care, "Why did you do this? To your own wife?"

"I didn't lie completely to her, her mother did have an illness, but she did not die when she gave birth to Rouge. She lived, but only had a little time to live afterwards. I took her to the base and started to come up with a plan to help her, but the more mixed DNA I put into her the more she became a creature. I successfully got rid of her illness, but...now she's part of my research. I tried and tried to fix her, but I never could. Its been at least over ten years and I still haven't succeed." General Bat had tears emerging from his eyes, "I did all I could to help her."

Shadow crossed his arms, "This isn't my problem."

"What am I going to do?"

Shadow began to walk away, "It doesn't matter to me or to anyone else just to yourself."

When he was gone General Bat just stared at his deepest mistake while he reached for his cell card.

Later the sky had turned dark and gray a storm would soon come. Appex, Lara, and Rouge were walking on the streets of Central City.

Lara noticed how the sky looked, "The sky."

Appex and Rouge stopped.

Appex thought it wasn't a big deal, "What about it?"

"Have you noticed it has turned all of a sudden gray?"

"So?"

"It was fine a moment ago. Something's wrong." Lara looked ahead and saw a black hedgehog approaching them.

"...Shadow..." Rouge was a little nervous ever since the other time Shadow tried to kill her.

Shadow confronted them, "Would you look at that? Fresh blood."

Lara gritted her teeth and took out her sword.

Shadow laid his eyes on Rouge, "Still living huh? Barely, you look kinda shook up, bat."

Rouge got behind Appex.

"Don't worry, Rouge. I won't let him touch you." Appex said trying to make her feel protected.

"You are a fool all of you. You can't stop me. I am the ultimate being. The ultimate weapon of mass destruction. I will kill you all with my bare hands."

"We'll see about that." Lara charged at him bringing her sword in a stabbing position.

Shadow just stood there laying his eyes on her sword.

The sword somehow moved by itself and stabbed Lara in her lower chest. Lara fell to the ground holding her wound.

"Lara!" Appex came to her and took the sword out of her chest. "Lara, are you okay?"

Shadow bought on his evil laugh again, "Such fools you are, to stop me. Try if you must, but that will be your fate."

"You. You're going down." Appex left the bleeding echidna and ran at him with a punch.

Shadow dodged his punch and kicked him from behind.

Appex almost lost his balance from the impact, but he didn't.

"Chaos Control!" Shadow then disappeared.

Everyone looked around for him, but they saw nothing.

"What the-?"

"Chaos Spear!" A familiar voice said in the back of him.

Before Appex got a chance to look behind him he got attacked in the back. Appex fell to the ground wounded.

Rouge saw yellow spears in the back of him, he was bleeding severely. Rouge started to crying,

"Appex, no!"

Shadow confronted him while he was on the ground suffering, "Like my new attacks? Just learned them."

"No wonder I haven't seen those moves before." Appex had said hoarsely.

Shadow held out his hand at Appex's head, "Don't worry Appex, here's one you ought to know. Chaos Blast!" A red light came from his hand and stuck Appex's head.

Rouge cried harder when she saw his blood scatter, "No!" She knew he could take it anymore.

Appex wasn't dead, but he was unconscious.

After when Lara and Appex were out, Rouge was left alone without protection.

Shadow made an evil smirk, "What do you know, bat girl's all alone. I guess this means I can finish what I started."

Rouge backed away a little, "Stay away from me."

"That is physically impossible." He came over to her.

Rouge decided to run, but Shadow had got in front of her by using Chaos Control. Rouge screamed when Shadow grabbed her around her waist.

"You can't escape me again, this time I will kill you."

"No, leave me alone!"

"Rouge." Lara tried to get up, but she was too weak, she fell back down.

Rouge struggled in his grip, but it didn't work.

Shadow wanted to play with her, but there was no time. Lara was struggling to get up and help and he'd know that she would do so eventually. He decided to try and kill her immediately. His fangs appeared from his mouth.

Rouge's eyes widened, "No...no!"

Shadow had gotten closer to her neck, he was ready to bite into her, until a shot was fired in his back. It was a powerful bullet. It actually hurt him. The bullet made the impact deep inside of him.

Rouge easily escaped Shadow's grip as Shadow turned to see who was responsible. He looked behind him and saw General Bat holding a magnum in his hand. Judging by his face he was awfully serious. As Shadow tried to walk towards him, he fell to the ground out cold.