CHAPTER 13

A GENIUS AT HIS WORSE

That next day, Espio was knocking on Shadow's door and had hoped that he would answer. He waited outside of the door until Shadow appeared at the door. Espio tried to make a small smile, but he couldn't do that for some reason. "Hey, Shad." He studied the expression on Shadow's face and somehow Shadow didn't seem very happy to see Espio at all.

"Espio, what are you doing here?" He asked in a cold voice.

"Shadow, can I come in? I have to talk to you."

He made a nod and stepped aside to let Espio walk into the house.

Espio saw Shadow close the door and walk into the living room. He decided to follow him into the living room and sit with him on the sofa. It took him a while to gather the words that he was going to say. With hesitation, he had looked over to Shadow. "So Shadow, how are you feeling today?"

"Like every other damn day of my life. Espio, why are you here?"

"I came to talk to you."

"About what?"

"Well...about Kayla. You seem to worry about her a lot."

"Of course I worry about her. She's young and becoming an evil powerful demon each day."

Talking about Kayla had Espio wondering where she was, "So where is Kayla?"

"Taking a nap."

"Oh, I guess kids do need their rest." Espio decided to stop talking about different things and focus on the thing he wanted to tell Shadow. "Shadow, Darkness will always be inside of you and there will be times when he will escape you, but you can't blame yourself for it."

"But what if I take a life? That's pretty much my fault."

The chameleon shook his head, "No it isn't. It never will be. It's all Darkness remember? You'll stop him someday, but for now you'll just have to wait for that opportunity."

Shadow made a small smile, "Yeah, I guess I will."

Espio smiled as well. He was glad he was lifting Shadow's spirits up a little.

Then a little brown squirrel girl had came downstairs and walked up to Shadow slowly. She sat in between Shadow and Espio and looked up at Espio with a wide smile, "Oh hi, Detective Chameleon. What are you doing here?"

"I just came to see how you were doing."

Kayla's ears flopped down, "Not so good. I hurt all over and Shadow keeps giving me blood even after he told me not to drink it."

Espio looked over to Shadow in concern, "Shadow, you...gave her...blood?"

"I had to. Yesterday, she was about to go out of control and tap into her demon form. I had no choice but to give her blood to calm her."

Espio looked down at the girl, 'Poor Kayla. I hate to admit this but I think Appex was right. She was better off dead.'

Later in the city, Tonya and Rouge were walking on the sidewalk with milkshakes in their hands.

"So Espio tried to ask you out again?" Rouge asked.

Tonya took her mouth from her straw and nodded, "Yeah, it's so sweet when he tries to get my attention."

"I don't get it, Ton. If you like Espio so much, why don't you go out with the guy?"

"I can't date him, Rouge. At least not now. The time will come soon. You'll see."

The bat gave her a sly look, "Right."

"By the way Rouge, you did a great job finding the fourth Chaos Emerald. How did you do it?"

Rouge laughed a bit, "It was so easy an amateur could do it."

Their conversation was interrupted when a blue robot with two sharp bladed wings on its back flew past them with incredible speed. Rouge and Tonya looked behind them and saw the robot getting away with something white and shiny in its grip.

Tonya threw her milkshake to the side, "That looked like one of Hao's robots. Come on, Rouge." She started to run after the robot.

Rouge threw her milkshake on the ground and sighed, "Oh well, there goes another perfect day." She then followed Tonya and went after the robot.

Tonya couldn't catch up with the robot very well because of its great speed so she took one of her fans and threw it at the robot's leg.

The robot had then tripped and fell to the ground while dropping the shiny object that it was holding. As the robot tried to get back up, Rouge had jumped on it and knocked it back down.

The white bat crossed her arms, "You're not going anywhere."

Tonya ran up to the white object and picked it up. Her eyes widened with shock. She turned to Rouge, "Rouge, it's a Chaos Emerald."

Rouge looked down at the damaged robot, "So you really do work for Hao."

"So what if he does?" A familiar voice said behind them.

Rouge and Tonya quickly spun around and saw a blue wolf smiling at them in an evil way.

The wolf crossed his arms, "I should thank you ladies for fetching my Chaos Emerald for me." He held his hand out towards them, "Now be good girls and give me my emerald."

Tonya held the emerald tighter in her grip, "Why do you want the emerald?"

"That is none of your concern. Now give me the emerald."

Rouge glared at the wolf, "What a foolish bastard." She quickly tore off the arm from the robot and threw the heavy piece of metal at the wolf knocking him down to the ground.

He groaned in pain and was struggling to get back up, but Rouge had placed her foot down on his chest that was preventing him to get back off the ground. He stared into Rouge's furious eyes.

"Listen up, Hao! You can't just walk up to us and treat us like your little whores got it? Besides we can't give you the emerald anyway."

"Yeah", Tonya agreed. "You're evil."

Rouge had then heard police sirens in a far off distance and looked back at Hao, "If I were you, I'd get moving." She took her foot off of Hao's chest, took Tonya by her wrist, and started to run away leaving Hao behind.

Hao was struggling to get off the ground but the huge piece of metal was keeping him down. "Come back! I'll be good now! I promise! I don't want to go to jail again!"