CHAPTER 1

THE BIG MISSION

It was a dark night, but it wasn't completely dark with the moon shining brightly.

The same night at Shadow's house Rouge was sleeping peacefully in the bed, she rolled over to snuggle with her husband, but he wasn't there. She woke up noticing he wasn't there. She then spotted him on the balcony with his arms crossed looking at the bright moon just staring at it. She got out of bed slowly not only because she was tired, but she was pregnant as well. She stood beside the black hedgehog, "You look troubled is something wrong?"

"No, just go back to bed", he seemed to be in a bad mood.

Rouge obeyed him trying not to make him more upset. She went back to bed not facing Shadow. She then thought she heard him crying.

When morning came Rouge saw Shadow in the kitchen drinking coffee leaning against the counter. He still seemed to be in a bad mood. She walked up to him, "How are you feeling this morning?"

"Fine", he said quickly.

"You were crying last night, is something wrong?"

"I wasn't crying."

Rouge knew he was lying, "Don't lie to me, I know you were. I'm your wife Shadow, you can tell me anything."

Shadow tried to think of something else to say, but couldn't think of anything. He sighed, "I was only thinking about him."

"Who?"

"My father."

"Oh him, I understand that you're still upset about his death and all, but that happened over eighteen years ago. That happened when you were only a kid."

"I'm so stupid. I should've done something about it."

Rouge hugged him, "You were too young back then, you didn't understand."

Shadow felt a little better talking with someone rather than keeping things bottled up inside of him. He kissed her and for a long time. He broke away, "I gotta get going."

"I have to come with you because I have to talk to Tonya."

"About what?"

"Girl things, you wouldn't understand."

"Whatever", he seemed not to care, but he was still curious.

Later when Shadow and Rouge got to the Chaotix they were greeted by Vector and he seemed to have some important news. "Shadow, you're here and just in time. We got another exciting mission. We got hired by some anonymous gang and we have to destroy a facility that makes bombs."

Espio playfully hit Shadow's arm, "With Rouge out of commission and Tonya staying here to protect her we're both partnerless. Looks like we can be partners again for a while."

"We should leave right away to get started. Charmy already started the plane lets hop aboard", Vector said.

Shadow walked over to Rouge and kissed her.

They broke apart.

"Be careful", Rouge warned.

"I will."

When they got aboard the plane, they reached the huge facility within just a few minutes. They got out of the plane and snuck into an empty hallway of the facility.

Vector began to assign everybody partners, "We're in, Charmy and I will plant these dynamite packs while you and Espio knock out the security. Got it?"

Shadow, Espio, and Charmy nodded.

Vector and Charmy took a separate path in another hallway and Espio and Shadow did the same.

Shadow and Espio took a different hallway as well running like they were running for their lives, until Espio saw Shadow slow down while he was coughing.

Espio ran back to him seeing him maintaining his balance by leaning against the wall looking sick. "Shadow, what's wrong? You don't look too good."

"Espio, I don't feel well", he put his hands over his mouth coughing. Once he took it away he saw blood on his hands.

Espio forced him to sit down on the floor with his back against the wall, "You're sick stay here, until I come back. Okay?"

Shadow nodded coughing up more blood afterwards.

Espio headed towards the control room finding two men monitoring the cameras.

The two men heard him come in and they quickly pulled out their guns from their belts pointing their weapons at the purple chameleon.

Espio smirked, 'This is gonna be a piece of cake.' He took out a shuriken star and threw it on the floor, it exploded with knockout gas coming from the explosion.

The gas knocked the two men out cold.

Espio sat in one of their chairs and began to hack into the computer system to shut off the security. In only a matter of seconds the security was shut off. He took out his communicator to contact Vector. "The security cameras are off, go plant that bomb."

"Thanks, Espio." He then noticed Shadow wasn't in the background, "Where's Shadow?"

"He's sick, I think something's wrong with him. I'm going to go back for him now."

"Good luck."

Espio put away the communicator and ran out of the control room to find Shadow. When he got there he saw nothing but some blood laying on the floor. He was gone. "Shadow? Where did he go?" He then felt someone breathing on the back of his neck. He quickly spun around and saw a big looking black monster. He had huge horns on his head, piercing red eyes, sharp claws, transparent wings, drooling sharp fangs, red quills on his head, and a long thin tail.

The creature looked at Espio with rage walking closer to him with his claws hanging down from his fingertips.

Espio looked in his red eyes afraid of the monster, "What the fuck is that thing!"