CHAPTER 2

A CHANGED ROUGE

That next day at the Chaotix, Shadow felt bad for what he said to Rouge. He decided to apologize to her. He was waiting for her to come through the door.

Espio walked up to him, "I don't know, Shad. It takes a lot of reasoning to get through that bat's skull."

"She'll forgive me. At least I hope so."

Then Rouge came through the door, but something was wrong. She didn't look like herself. She had on black mascara, a black top with a black leather coat to match, a black skirt, black gloves, and black boots.

Shadow had his mouth hanging open having no idea what to say at the time, "...Rouge...what happened to you?"

Espio couldn't believe it neither, "Shadow, your girlfriend just went to kick to kick ass."

Rouge walked up to Shadow, "Like the new look?"

Shadow once again didn't know what to say, "Uh..."

"I like it!" Espio said with excitement.

Shadow looked over to Espio in disgust.

Espio shrugged, "What? I figured she wanted an honest reply."

Rouge reached in her pocket and took out a pack of cigarettes. She started to smoke on one.

Shadow's eyes widened, "What the hell are you doing! You don't smoke! And aren't those mine?"

She blew out some smoke, "They're mine now."

Vector came into the main entrance with Tonya and Charmy. "Did someone say smoking? Shadow, I told you this before..."

"It's not me!" This time Shadow was honest.

Tonya looked at Rouge smoking on a cigarette, "Rouge, what are you doing? You don't smoke!"

Charmy stared at her new outfit, "Looks like she made some changes with herself."

Shadow faced Rouge, "Why are you doing this?"

"Since you think I'm not strong like you. I've decided to show you how strong I really am. As of now, I'm not weak Rouge. Just call me bad girl."

Everyone had no idea she felt that way.

Shadow immediately objected against her actions, "Ro-I mean bad girl, don't you think this is a little extreme?"

Rouge glared at him, "I do what I want and if you're not happy with it then I'll be happy to fight you."

"Calm down! You're upset and everything, but you don't have to take it out on us."

Rouge put her hands on her hips, "That's what I thought." She walked to a corner, leaned against the wall and continued to smoke on her cigarette.

Tonya sighed and sat down at her desk, "What's her problem?"

Shadow shrugged, "I don't know. It's like she doesn't give a damn about anything except herself." he began to stare at her when she took out a canteen from her pocket and began to drink from it. He figured it was full of alcohol.

Rouge saw him staring at her, "What the hell are you looking at!"

"Is that...booze?"

She took another sip, "What if it is?"

Shadow glared at her.

Then the phone rang at Tonya's desk. She answered it and began talking for a short time. Afterwards she put the phone back on the hook. She turned to Vector, "Some woman named Terra said that her son was kidnaped and the kidnapper left a note demanding for a ransom."

Vector didn't seem very excited about the mission. He looked over to Shadow, "Shadow, I want you and Rouge to go over to that woman's house and look for any clues. Got it?"

Shadow nodded, "Got it. Lets go, Rouge."

Rouge punched Shadow in the arm.

"What the hell was that for!"

"I told you the name's bad girl."

Shadow was getting impatient, "Fine, whatever! Let's just go!"