Happy Valentines day. Word count around 3,000.
3 years ago...
Shadow firmly closes the door behind him. He walks back and forth in the room taking several breaths. He stops and rest his head on a corner wall. He continues to breath more angrily. Beating his head against the wall, *bam! * *BAm!* hitting his head harder, he goes into a full furry! Punching and cursing at the wall. His hands popping as he increases speed. The ceiling shakes as he stops the final punch, before slumping to the ground. Rouge opens the door carefully, as she entered. "Shadow." She whispered.
"Go. Away." He growls. Rouge closes the door behind her as she gentle walks to him.
"I heard what happened. Shadow, I'm so sorry." His glowing red eyes peaked out from his darkness. "Did you know him?" He asked. "No." She meekly tells him. "Then Why are you sorry*." He curled up. Rouge gets on her knees and places a hand on his shoulder. "It's because, YOUR, hurting from the loss of a friend." Shadow tries to push her away, but she grabs him in a hug, pulling him into her. "Please, Shadow, I'm your partner. Let me be here for you." A moment passes and Shadow slowly hugs her back. She could feel his tears forming at her neck, as he lets out some settle quivers.
"He didn't deserve to die like that, Rouge. He was a good man." He softly sobbed.
Present Time...
Dawn peeks its way through the curtains, as it slowly wakes up the apartment's owner. Sally rubs her face into her pillow, trying to fall back asleep, but it was pointless. She sits up stretching her arms around her head, scratching her messy red hair. After freshening up a bit, she slumps down as her table. Someone walks in from the kitchen, setting a hot cup of coffee down for her, while chomping on some beans. "Thank you." She thanked; sleep deprived. She looks over at Shadow, as he put on a uniform. "Don't you look nice. Although I'm not used to seeing you with pants." She tells him, leaning her hand on her cheek.
"I have a meeting today with, GUN. Some new project they want to do." Shadow tells her. He puts on his uniform coat and asks her, "How do I look?" The red head chipmunk leans back in her chair, looking him up and down in his Black dress pants with a red stripe down the side, White dress shirt that revealed just enough of his chest fluff and the dark gray jacket over it all hiding his gun on his left side. Sally smiles a mischievous grin, "~Yuumm~" He looks at the time and goes to leave, but she calls him telling him he forgot something. Shadow walks back to the table looking, when she pulls him down into a kiss. "It's rude not to kiss the girl before you leave." She tells him. He gives a peck before he leaves this time.
It's been a few weeks since their first time together on Christmas eve and so on. To put it simple, neither of them are ready to date yet. So, for right now they have a casual Friends with Benefits thing going. With Sally giving him pointers and advice on what to do in a relationship, if he ever does get one.
Team Dark's office...
Shadow had just return from the meeting and is now nibbling on some coffee beans while looking over the forms he needs to fill out. He looks over to Rouge's desk, with how everything is the way she left it, since she's been gone. At this point it has been over two weeks, and he's starting to get concern. Mainly because she hasn't been blowing up his phone with updates of what she's doing. He looks up when he hears the door opening. Rouge walks in, dragging her heels, as she slumps down in her chair. "...morning..." She mumbles. "You, used up a lot of your vacation days. Is it anything I should be worried about?" Shadow asked. "Personal stuff, Shadow..." She gowns. Flopping her head over she watches him, "Why, you look handsome~." She flirts, seeing him all dressed. She notices the paperwork and asked him about it.
"I had a meeting today." He tells her. She sits up in her chair, "I wasn't invited. What was it about?" When she sat up he could really tell she's been struggling with something, but if she wasn't going to tell him, he wasn't going to force her to. "GUN wants to start having agents run patrols in public areas, to raise awareness and support... The meeting was required for us who... might set a effective example..."
With a narrow gaze, she braces her hand on her cheek. "Meaning they don't want a repeat of December." Shadow's brow flinches, with a strained expression, "Th-that matter may have came up... but it was resolved without further media attention and GUN was not hurt." Rouge's stare intensifies as her eyebrow wisps, "You, beat a suspect, dressed like Santa Clause, into submission, Shadow. Honestly, if it wasn't for the fact Elias wants to keep Sally's return private it would have made more of a stir." She smiles mischievously at him and brandishes a quick smirk. However, she soon darted her eyes and her lips thinned. Her eyes quickly go to their door when someone knocks.
A Federation Agent walks in with a file. "Excuse me is, Agent Rouge, in yet?" Rouge raises her right-hand motioning at herself, while her left palm rubs her face. "What is it?" She grumbles.
"The Federation has been contacted, in regard to a Museum Theft. Th-" Rouge cuts the Federation agent off with a loud *AAAhhGGG!* "It was NOT me. Why is it every time there is a theft the Federation looks at me? I've been a good~ girl for some time now." She says with sass. Shadow has a smirk on his face, like he's keeping something to himself. She sees this and points at him, "Shut up."
"That's not the reason. It wasn't until the most resent theft, that a connection to the rest was made." He hands the papers over on her desk, as she fingers them. "All of the museums and high security deposits were ALL commissioned the same person to secure their security." She looks a alarmed and starts reading through all the places that had been robbed. The color in her face drains as she reads each name. "I- I done work for each of them. This... This can't be!? I made sure that they were... How?" She was finally able to get out. The Fed. gave a sigh, "Thats what the Federation wants to know... However, there was a casualty." ...
~8 hours later- "The International Museum of Art and Antiquity"
Team dark rolls up, on Shadow's motorcycle, with Omega rocketing along with them. Rouge lets go of Shadow as she flies off, his bike. "How can you sit on that seat, for so long?" She complained. "Who said, you had to ride with me.?" He asked. "And I'm just saying, we could have gotten here faster if we just took a Carrier jet. You know since you gave you Emerald to, Hope." The three agents meet with local police, as they walked them through.
"At least remember that we are here to WORK and not bring back any "souvenirs", again." He tells her. She gives him a flirtatious smirk.
The police showed Rouge and Shadow the security footage, while Omega used his built-in software to filter through the footage for any irregularities. The security footage shows a figure walking into the room where the Jewelry was kept. It looked like the person was wearing a thermal suit with the constant movements on it. "Shortly after this there was some kind of energy surge, that wiped the system." A Captain tells them. Just as the figure reaches for the case a security guard appears, holding him at gun point. The screen turns static.
"The security guard, is he?" Shadow asked. The officer nodded, sadly. "He suffered cardiac arrest. We think the surge fried his past maker in the process... It's even worse that his kid saw it."
Rouge looks up in concern. "There was a kid here?!?"
"Yes. It was "bring your child to work, day". Poor kid been silent since. We tried having a local doctor talk, but..." She looks at Shadow, as if asking for permission to go talk to the child. Shadow nods, "Your better with kids any way. I'll finish up the reports."
~Days later...
A microwave dings, as it finishes. Shadow pulls out the microwave noodles and hands one to Sally, while they "hung out" in Team Darks office. "So, Rouge is taking this pretty personal?" She asked looking at her empty desk.
"Yes." He tells her, slurping his noodles. "Who ever done it was able to evade the security cameras and guards AND disappeared without any prints or DNA."
"All except this drawing, the kid done." She said, looking at the scribble picture of a silhouette. Shadow looks pained, "Yes. It was all, Rouge, was able to get out of the kid. She contacted the mother and referenced her to a child psychiatrist."
"What did they get away with?" Shadow hands her a report off all the stolen Museums properties. Wiping her fingers clean she reads it down. "This is some very specific stuff. They could already have a buyer on the Black market, before they even steal it... I could reach out to some of my remaining contacts and see if they heard anything." He tells her that, "That would be helpful."
~
Shadow meets up with the rest of Team Dark in Hope's lab. Where she keeps his Emerald as a power source. Everything had been lowered now, since she's been in a wheelchair. "*Shadow. You have arrived, just in time.*" Omega greeted.
"In time for what?" The dark hedgehog asked. Hope tells him, "Omega's systems found something unusual in the security recording." She opens up a program she designed to run the system. "Original, Rouge, thought the thief was wearing a thermal suit to hide their heat signature, but it's not. Instead what we are seeing is the viscous movement of energy."
"Alright." Shadow understands the technical talk, because he was raised in a lab. "Sallys', looking in for us on her side. She thinks the thief may already have buyers before hand." Rouge looks annoyed as she has her arms cross. "Fine. Then I'm off to the training grounds." She moves past him, without taking her eyes off the exit. "If I'm going to catch this guy, I need to brush up on some skills."
GUN'S obstacle cores grounds...hours latter...
Rouge jumps, leaps and flies through the obstacle cores. Sweat dripping off her as she leans over for breath. She looks at her wristwatch and sees her time. "Dame. I knew being behind a desk dulled me, but not this much." The bat cursed. 'I bet she's able to go om for hours.' She hears someone walking up behind her. Instinctively she swings her leg around in a round house kick, aiming for their head. Burban narrowly dodged the kick, landing on his back.
"BURBAN? What are you thinking, sneaking up on someone?" She tells him as she helps him up. "I called your name. Several times actually, but it looked like you were deep in thought." The dark red rabbit tells her. "So? Want to ease your mind?" He asks. She crosses her arms and put on a thinking-pouting face...
"It's the case team dark is working on... It's just getting to me, because my reputation as the best is on the line."
Museum...
Rouge swings a leg off the rafters of the display room, while she waits. Of the list Sally gave them there were top three hit that could happen. Shadow took the target to the North. Omega and Hope took the one towards East of the one, her and Burban were watching. While Rouge waited for the thief, Burban dressed as a security guard as back up.
*"Do they really consider this stuff Art now?"* Burban asked as he walked around. "Yes, they do and it's worth quite a bit." The bat tells him. "Awful lot of money to buy a painting that looks like an old garage tarp. Seriously, some of the kids in Creams class can do a lot better." Burban kind of jokes with Rouge. Getting a small snicker out of the bat. There is a short silence between them, until Rouge speaks. *"Cream, was asking about you. She tells me that you haven't been around their house for a few weeks?"*
"Can we just stay focused on work?" He asks irritated. *"Stealing, Love and Art. Is work."* She sasses back. "Nice motto, you should put that on a shirt." He snickered at his own comment. *"Yay, I'm already working on it. So, spill."* She demands.
He clicks his tong a few times. *"... I... Its... Things with "V" have kind of gotten awkward since Christmas. I thought we could put it behind up but, there's just this... I don't know?"* He tells her, ruffling his hair. "What exactly happened? Vanilla isn't someone who gets ruffled up easily."
A silhouette of a person "waves" through a wall, of the Jewelry exabit, ripples of light blue over gray stop when the silhouette turns a dial counterclockwise on a belt. In the empty room, his footsteps make no noise. Turing the dial a quarter clockwise, the silhouette shades of blue rippled again. Sticking its hand through a safe and pulling out a large natural Dimond the size of a softball. "Hello, Beautiful." The silhouette greeted his prize.
"That IS a real beauty." A female's voice said, in the darkness. The silhouette looks around for the owner of the voice. "Now, I'm not one to intrude on another's score. Buuut you're making me look bad, and I can't have you ruining my reputation." The silhouette looks up to see a white bat in a black outfit, sitting on a rafter. The Silhouette makes a run for it, Rouge throws her heart daggers at the thief, but they don't phase it. The silhouette instead uses one of her daggers to break a display case causing the alarms to go off, and the museum into lockdown. The silhouette then throws the valuable artifact at Rouge. In a panic she swoops down and catches it.
Burban runs to grab the Silhouette, jumping and doing a flip over the thief, landing in front of him. The Silhouette doesn't stop running. "FreeEEEZZZZ!?!?" The Silhouette runs right through Burban. Burban shivers and shakes his body, "T-that felt weird. Bbbbrrr" Rouge watches in shock as the Silhouette walks right through the shut blast doors, trapping them inside. She hits the ground and she curses.
~6 hours later... (Because of the Museums Blast shields)
Shadow just arrived to the Museum Rouge and Burban was station at. After showing his badge he looks for Rouge, spotting her sitting on a bench. "What happened?" The dark hedgehog asked. "I'll tell you what happened! We just got our asses handed to us by some... "Ghost Thief".?" A reporter over hears her and more and more start asking her questions. Some of which really troubled her. Shadow sends them off as he takes her to a separate break room to talk.
The first thing Rouge asked was, "How is Burban doing?" Shortly after the silhouette escaped Burban started feeling sick and collapsed. "He's doing better now. It was just the side effect of Quantum displacement. Its normal for some to experience that during their first teleportation." She looks him in the eyes, "Except he didn't. The thief ran through him, Shadow!"
"I hear you, but what your suggesting even I CAN'T DO. To move constantly like that would put amazing amounts of straining on the body, let alone the concentration to do it." He explains. "Well, he did." She corrects him. "Are you saying there is someone better than me, at using my own power? Alright, I'll humor you. Lets say this thief is able to constantly move his matter to displace his body, we would at least find some part of his body, a skin sample at the least."
~Hopes lab...
"You found what?" Rouge and Shadow asked. "We found a tip of a finger stuck on the out side of the wall. It must have molecular-ized as he was walking through, either that or someone is not going to be happy Friday night." Rouge gives Shadow a smug look as he rolls his eyes at her. "Can we at least get a profile off the DNA?" Shadow asked. "No, but its amazing at how the molecular manipulation is done. Its like a fingerprint on his finger. The good news is who ever done this had to be a specialist, or at least someone who had experience dealing with Quantum mechanics, so I should be able to print off a list of possible scientist. IHAVE GOT to show Tails this!" Hope cheered.
Back in Team Darks office Omega was charging for the day, so it was just the two of them. Shadow pulls out a bottle from their fridge. "Yes, please~." She agreed with him. He hands her a cup of alcohol. Shadow checks his phone and reads a message from Sally, and Vanilla. She sees the icon for Sally and looks away quickly, taking a drink.
"So... how are things going between you and Sally?" She asked. He seemed kind of surprised by her asking about Sally. "Alright. I guess. She doesn't know that many people so she messages alot. She was asking me if I could get her your Message profile, so the two of you can talk." Rouge sends Sally her profile to add. The dark hedgehog could feel there was a since of tension between them so he figured ask her something that would up lift the mood. "How is that Knuckle head of yours?" He joked. "If I was a gambler, I -" "We broke up, Shadow." The bat tells him in a irritated voice. Shadow's eyes grow, "What?... I'm sure what ever he done the two of you will work it out again."
"It's not him this time. It's me. We had a fight... let's just say I got some things to figure out, but I don't think we're going to get back together..." She starts tearing up. "N-not tis time." Shadow comforted her as she tears up a little. She thanked him for being there for her each time.
The printer started preping as they were getting the list, Hope Saud she send over. "Enough of this Girl talk, it's time to get back to work." She tells him, energetic. It was only 2 papers, one of the Scientists who have knowledge to do this and the other lesser but still possible suspects. They each read a list. "At least this shouldn't take long." She tells him positively. "I know one of them." The hedgehog tells her. "What?" He shows her the name, "Dr. Bohr Planck. He was one of the scientists on ARK, he even helped Professor Robotnik make my inhibitor rings." "That means we can talk to him sooner, right?" The silver bat asked confused, with the depressing look on his face. He sighs, sadly, "Not unless you want to use a Ouija board. Dr. Bohr died in a lab fire almost 3 years ago."
(Since this chapter was longer than i thought the next part will cone out soon, to make it easierto read. "Ghost Thief part 2")
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