CHAPTER 35

Later on that night at a bar, Shadow was sitting beside Espio at the bar counter. They both had shot glasses that were full of alcohol setting in front of them.

Shadow turned to the purple chameleon who sat beside him. "Thanks for chilling with me tonight, Es. I really needed someone to talk to and a drink."

Espio held the shot glass in his hand and drunk it all in one chug. "It's no prob, Shad. It's been awhile since we had a guy's night out."

"Yeah", he spoke dully.

Espio noticed how he had a lot on his mind it seemed. "So what's going on anyway?"

His eyes wandered away from him as he looked down at the counter. "Nothing it's just…Charmy."

Espio arched an eyebrow when he had suddenly mentioned his name. "What about him?"

He sighed heavily before he began to explain to him. "You wanna know the reason why he's been acting so weird?"

He made a slow nod.

"…He hates me."

Espio had then made a sarcastic laugh. "What? Charmy? Hates you? Good one!" His smile faded when he saw Shadow giving him a serious look. "Oh, you're serious?" He couldn't figure out why Charmy had any reason to be upset with him He had always known him for completely adoring Shadow. "Why do you think he hates you?"

"Yesterday he told me he wanted me out of his life."

Espio gave him a look full of disbelief. "What?"

"…He's blaming me for what happened to Vector."

"Oh my God…" He was shocked to know that Charmy was acting so strange because he had thought Vector's death was all Shadow's fault.

"I didn't tell Rouge what had happened between us. Nobody knows except for you."

"This is horrible. How could Charmy think everything was your fault?" He was then hit with a thought. "Margaret! She's turned Charmy against you!"

He slowly shook his head, "No, Margaret's not responsible."

Margaret had hated absolutely hated Shadow and since Charmy was living with her, he had figured that she was putting all kinds of horrible thoughts in his head. "What makes you think that?"

"Think about it. Margaret has hated me since the moment she met me. Why would Charmy suddenly hate me after all this time?"

Espio placed a finger to his chin as he thought about it. He had made a point. Charmy was more than used to the fact that Margaret hated Shadow and he had been hearing her insults about him for years. So why would this make him suddenly turn against Shadow? "You're right. There has to be something more…"

Meanwhile in another part of the bar, Nack and the rest off the Raiders stood at the doorway of the bar.

Nack scanned around the bar with a smirk on his face. "Yeah", he spoke. "This place is perfect."

"Are you seriously gonna try it here?" Damon asked.

"Yeah", Razi added. "There's a lot of big guys in here."

Nack had pulled out the diamond and placed it in the inside of his jacket. "And that's what's gonna make things interesting."

Zena had feared that Nack was going to test out the diamond on any random person he could lay his eyes on. What if the diamond didn't make him stronger? He would be in serious trouble if he picked a fight with the wrong person. "I don't know, Nack. What if it doesn't work?"

"You'll get beaten to a pulp", Maxcell nervously glanced around at the tough looking men who was walking around the bar.

"Then I'll just take that chance", Nack spoke in a confident tone.

The group watched as Nack walked over to a pool table that was surrounded by big and muscular looking men.

Nack stood beside a fairly muscular male brown ox biker. He watched as he failed to make a shot. He chuckled obnoxiously. "You call that a shot? I bet my grandmother could play this game better than you can and she's freakin' dead!"

The brown ox slammed the pool stick down onto the table and spun around to the weasel in anger. "What did you just say?"

Zena placed her hands over her mouth in horror as she watched the biker turn to him. "He's so dead."

Nack put on an act and pretended that he wasn't intimidated by him. He continued to insult the ox. "You heard me, you ugly fuck."

The ox grabbed him by his jacket and gave him an enraged look. "Who the hell do you think you are?"

Nack still kept a smirk on his face. "I'm the guy who's gonna beat your ass."

"Well aren't you a cocky son of a bitch?" He clenched his fist and had began to swing at him until Nack had suddenly caught and grabbed his fist. His eyes widened in surprise by his actions.

"I am quite cocky but you my friend are the bitch." He then flung the ox back while using only one hand.

The ox had fell onto another pool table causing him to break it into pieces.

With their mouths hung open, the group of bikers looked down at the unconscious ox in disbelief. They had then focused their attention to Nack who stood there cracking his knuckles.

"So, who's next?"

Maxcell's jaw dropped as he witnessed Nack's incredible power. "Holy crap! It works! The diamond actually works!"

"He's totally unstoppable", Zena was quite surprised that the diamond had worked as well.

The rest of the bikers had began to charge towards Nack.

Before Shadow could take another sip from his shot glass, he and Espio were startled when they heard multiple voices shouting on the other side of the bar. He turned to Espio. "What was that?"

"I don't know but I'm going to find out." He stood from the stool he was sitting on and began to walk towards the other side of the bar. When he had walked over, he saw a male purple weasel picking up one of the biker's body and slamming his body onto a pool table. His eyes widened as he looked around and saw at least five other bikers laying on the floor in pain. He focused his attention back to the weasel. "Nack", he growled. He then saw Shadow standing next to him.

"What's going on?"

Espio looked towards Nack and pointed in his direction, "Look for yourself."

Shadow turned and his sights fell upon the weasel. "It's Nack."

"Yeah", Espio spoke as he looked back to him. "How lucky are we huh?" When he saw Shadow beginning to confront Nack, he decided to stand next to him.

"Nack!" Shadow shouted as he confronted the weasel.

Nack spun around and turned to a purple chameleon standing beside a black and red hedgehog. "Well, well what a surprise! Didn't expect to run into you fools here."

"It's over, Nack! You're coming with us!" Espio shouted.

The weasel crossed his arms. "Oh am I? You and what army?"

Shadow cracked his knuckles and began to walk over to Nack. "Looks like we're doing this the hard way…"

Nack made an evil chuckle when he saw Shadow approaching him. "What are you gonna do? Beat me up? I'd like to see you try!"

"You're sounding mighty confident tonight. I'll put a stop to that." He then saw Nack picking up a pool table with only one hand and throwing it at him and Espio.

They were both knocked to the floor by the impact of the table.

Nack laughed evilly when he saw the two hit the floor. "Eat that, detectives!"

While Espio was trying to recover from the hard hit, Shadow got up from the floor and came at Nack with his fists clenched. When he had tried to punch him, Nack had caught both his fists.

While he held his fists, he made an evil smile. "Looks like you're not the only tough one anymore huh, hedgehog?"

When Shadow finally broke out of his grip, he attempted to send another punch towards him.

Before Shadow could hit him, Nack dodged his attack and sent a forceful punch into his arm. He had then grabbed him by his weak arm tightly and sent a powerful kick from behind, sending Shadow flying into Espio.

Shadow and Espio both hit the floor once again.

Nack looked down at the two who weakly looked up at him. "How does it feel to be the weak ones now, detectives?"

Shadow and Espio glared at the weasel and had wondered how he had suddenly gotten so strong.

"You can't win this time! I'm now unstoppable!" He turned his back away from them and walked out of the bar with the rest of the Raiders following behind him.

Espio weakly stood from the floor with Shadow standing beside him. "What just happened?"

Shadow panted heavily in exhaustion, "I think…Nack just kicked our asses…"

In The Next Chapter…

Tonya: I can't deny it anymore. I still have feelings for him…

Tikal: Shadow? Espio?

Espio: We have a problem…

Shadow: It's Nack…he's gotten stronger somehow.

Nack: You can't win! I am unstoppable!