From the bushes across the street from Doctor Golvin's private estate, G.U.N's most skillful agents watched and waited for the scientist to leave. It was still early in the morning, which would give them time to find what they were looking for once he went off to work. Though the view of his house wasn't entirely clear thanks to the high fence that surrounded the property, it didn't seem to be guarded, at least on the outside.
"He probably assumes the gate is enough," Rouge commented, faint arrogance in her tone. "Sure, he's on the edge of town – but does he really think he's not in danger of being robbed here?"
Shadow merely shrugged when she glanced at him, using their time in hiding to get familiar with the handheld device Tower had given them to locate the stolen weapon. His partner tugged at the long strips of cloth hanging from the back of her head, tightening the hood of her spy outfit, and kept her eyes on the area near Golvin's front door. Shadow, of course, found a disguise to be unnecessary; and she knew it was pointless to advocate for one. He didn't really need one if they were going to make it a quick mission. She just liked to be prepared.
Then, Rouge spotted the man walking away from his house, already talking on the phone while he strolled to his car. She kept her gaze on him but held her hand out to the hedgehog, gaining his attention. "There he is, leaving now."
Shadow shifted his position to crouch beside her, the dastardly pair watching the scientist get in his vehicle and pull out of the long driveway. Just to be safe, they kept an eye on his car until it disappeared down the slope of the hilly road, then shared a glance.
"It's clear," stated Rouge, getting a nod from him before they sprang into action.
They approached the backside of the fenced area, Shadow teleporting past it to hug the home's wall while the bat flew over to dismantle any cameras – but she was surprised to not see any around.
'What kind of rich asshole doesn't have security cameras?' she thought, hovering level with the second floor. 'Even I have them...'
She looked down at the Ultimate Lifeform, who looked at the Commander's device and then up at her. He raised it towards her, then tossed it in the air for her to catch, being careful not to speak too loudly as he did so. "I don't think it's on the first floor. What color is the dot at that height?"
Rouge studied the black screen and the steadily blinking spot that sat on the right side. "It's yellow."
"It was orange down here," he replied, "so it must be up there. Try the windows."
The flying spy turned to the two windows on their side of the building, attempting to nudge each one open, but they were locked. When she looked at Shadow again, his expression silently acknowledged the hindrance, but she didn't hesitate in reassuring him as she dropped the device down into his grip.
"No worries, a little lock won't stop me." She pulled out a putty knife and a hammer, going to work on disarming one of the windows while her teammate waited.
He admired her skill, watching the thief pry the window open in less than a minute. And once she was able to lift it from the sill, she gave him a thumbs-up. Shadow assumed she must also be smiling behind the veil of faded purple fabric; the same sly smile she always had when she succeeded at something sneaky. He smiled, too, and reached his free hand out for her to take, then she hauled him up to the second story and they let themselves in. The agents ended up in a hallway, dark hardwood beneath their feet and light gray wallpaper sitting behind spatterings of paintings and decorous art pieces.
Rouge took a look around and said to Shadow, "Lead the way, master tracker."
They cautiously wandered the halls, him walking ahead and watching for the tracking dot to change color as it moved according to their location, while she scanned their surroundings for cameras or guards. It put them a bit on edge how little security there seemed to be in the Doctor's home, but they eventually found the room they were looking for. Shadow stopped when the spot turned green, their wander ending outside a brown mahogany door.
"I believe it's in here," he said, pointing at the door, then tried the knob.
It was locked, as well, so the stolid hedgehog gave a slight bow to Rouge and stepped aside. She used the simpler tool of a metal paper clip to open the door, kneeling and pressing her ear against the wood as she fiddled inside the lock. When she heard an affirming click, she hopped to her feet and eagerly nodded at Shadow, a mischievous twinkle in her cyan eyes. He could tell she was giddy to finish the mission so quickly and leave the Commander's office thousands richer by lunchtime, and it amused him to see the lady in such high spirits.
He opened the door, holding the device in front of him to follow it even closer to their target. The room was a decently sized lounge that seemed to double as a small library, judging by the bookcases that lined the walls. Rouge closed the door behind them, looking around but unfortunately noticing too late that there was a keypad on the wall beside the entrance; Shadow, a few steps ahead, unknowingly crossed one foot into the path of a near-invisible laser. A harsh hissing sound filled the air above them, which made him look up as water spurted from a handful of sprinklers on the ceiling.
"Ah!" exclaimed Rouge, throwing one arm above her head.
But as Shadow quickly saw, it couldn't be ordinary water bursting from the flower-shaped fixtures – purple liquid rained down on them, causing the hedgehog to cry out when a drop of it fell into his eye. It stung a little, making him clutch his face and grit his teeth. Once she was past the initial surprise, the bat was quick to jump up and kick the nearest sprinkler off the ceiling, dispatching the rest while her companion stood briefly incapacitated. With the downpour halted, Rouge stepped across the soggy carpet towards him, worry in her voice.
"Are you okay? You're not blind, right?"
Grimacing, Shadow removed his fingers from pinched eyes and opened them, squinting and blinking the sting of the liquid away. "I'm alright... it doesn't burn that badly, just... smells flowery."
The scent was strong once it set in, a sickly-sweet aroma that strangled the air around them and buried itself in his quills. But despite his claim of being unharmed, Rouge began swiftly removing her spy suit, stripping to her usual outfit underneath.
"We don't know what was in that stuff," she said, pulling off the drenched material and dropping it on the equally wet floor. "It clearly wasn't normal water – we need to get it out of your fur. I'll be right back!"
Without hesitation, she ran out the door, leaving him in the perfumed room. Shadow took a moment to check his tracking tool, assuring that it still worked before continuing to follow the direction of the dot. It pointed him to the right-side wall from where they'd entered, and when he walked up to the wide bookcase in between two thinner ones, the spot on the screen started blinking more rapidly. It didn't change color until he held it closer to the books, turning blue to alert him that they were close to the object they were hunting.
But when the soaked being reached out to grab one of the novels – intending to test if it was a secret entrance to another room – he suddenly felt woozy and had to steady himself. One gloved hand clutched the government device tightly while the other splayed at his side, his arm straightened for balance and one foot planted farther behind his body to keep him from falling backwards.
'Shit, what is this?' his mind asked, while his physical form stood frozen in fear of his legs giving out. His view of the bookshelf became slightly warped, the once-straight edges of the hardcovers seeming to bend. '... Not good...'
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly before fixing his posture. However, he didn't trust himself to try testing the books again, standing still a moment and trying to work out what the hell had been in the sprinkler system, or what exactly it was doing to him. Doctor Golvin clearly wanted to inhibit intruders' rational thought and coordination; as much as he lacked security elsewhere, Shadow decided he was a strange man for booby trapping this room using such an odd method. Though, it was working to cloud his mind from completing the next step of his task...
Thankfully, Rouge didn't take long in returning with a towel, rushing back into the room and immediately throwing it over the hedgehog's head. "Good to see you're still standing! I was afraid I'd come back and you'd be passed out on the floor or something."
Instantly, Shadow knew things were worse than he initially thought – her voice sounded stronger, almost angelic while retaining a charming mature timbre. And when she started rubbing the towel against his quills to dry them, his heart rate spiked. He placed his free hand against the bookshelf, his vision partially blocked by the shuffle of the towel and his head swimming with flustered nerves.
His dear friend's annoyed tone sounded sweeter than it normally would as she spoke, "Ugh, the stink of lilac is so strong – even for me! Sorry, Shad, I don't think this scent is coming out any time soon..."
The man let out a shaky breath and raised his hand to weakly grab the towel, trying to pull it from Rouge's grip. "I can dry it... myself."
When he managed to look at her, his heart pounded harder than before. She was so close to him, Shadow almost felt like he couldn't breathe, and the glow he saw around her silhouette scared him. 'What the fuck is happening?'
He didn't notice how quickly he was breathing, but she did. Combined with the faraway look in his eyes and his limp grasp on the towel, the ivory-haired huntress recognized an alarming amount of incoherence in his demeanor. "Shadow? You're not gonna faint on me, are you? Hey..."
She placed one hand on the side of his face, trying to establish eye contact, but it only served to freak him out further; because instead of calming the hedgehog down, Rouge's touch made him feel flush and more anxious than before. He inhaled sharply and fought through the urge to lean closer, pulling away and taking better control of the towel. The colors of everything around him were slowly becoming more vivid.
"I'm fine." His tone was solid and steady, as close to normal as he could muster, and he managed to act calm and collected while drying his fur. "Take this... I'm pretty sure that bookcase is fake."
Shadow handed over the tracker, trying not to look directly at her. Rouge took it, but kept her eyes on him for a second, wary of his behavior. When she turned to inspect the shelves, he couldn't resist the gravitation of his gaze towards her body, blood-red eyes lingering over womanly curves that taunted him as she pulled on different books. The pretty super spy made finding a secret entrance look graceful, her figure elegantly posed even as she didn't acknowledge how stunning she appeared. His stare trailed down the arch of her back to the sight of shapely hips – and more – snugly hugged by a flattering bodysuit, before he realized what he was doing.
'Damnit...!' Shadow's thoughts rushed forth, and he forced himself to look away. 'This is a side effect of that... liquid, whatever it was. I shouldn't be looking at her... like that.'
He began dragging the towel across himself more fervently for quicker results and a distraction from the scene in front of him; meanwhile, Rouge found the cluster of faux books which opened the shelf. It cracked inwards like a door.
"Yes!" she blurted, balling her fist in triumph before pressing onward through the newfound entrance.
The room it led into was made of pearl-colored tile flooring and reflective silver walls. It was like a hallway, with glass tables on either side that held different technological projects and inventions. She looked down at the tracker while walking inside and noted the more frantic flashing of the blue dot.
"Shadow!" she called over her shoulder. "You were right, I think it's in here. Come on!"
The Ultimate Lifeform dreaded following, as even the click of her heels on the solid floor rang through his head like a melodic chime. But he didn't have much of a choice, so he took another deep breath and steadied himself, dry enough to discard the towel. In the long room, Rouge reached an area that was sectioned off from the rest by a half-wall, where the device she held showed a white dot when she pointed it at one of the objects on a square of marble counterspace. The item was stark white in color, covered in buttons and shaped like a spiky trapezoid.
"Found it!" announced the bat, taking a moment to study it in amusement. "Man, this thing looks weird. What the hell could all these buttons possibly do?"
She didn't dare touch any of them, instead thinking of the Commander's offer. She turned around and beamed at her partner in an expression of victory. "Ooh, Shadow, we are gonna be so set after this!"
Unable to contain her excitement, Rouge impulsively threw herself towards him, hugging the hedgehog and chuckling gleefully. Her gushing admiration of the sizable payout to come was drowned out by the shock coursing through Shadow's body at her sudden affectionate outburst. The harmony of her voice became a string of music as warmth overtook him, the intoxicated G.U.N agent fully engulfed by ardor brought on by the scientist's strange trap.
He felt dizzier as his heart thumped more forcefully at the feeling of her body against his. He didn't even realize he had hugged her back until the astonishment passed, suddenly recognizing the squeeze of his arms around Rouge's familiar form. Shadow was holding her tightly, feeling as if time had stopped for them both, until she tried to break the hug. Only after she realized he wasn't pulling away did her voice manage to cut through the pheromone-fueled haze of their embrace.
"Shadow...?"