Mace and Nightshade

Mace and Nightshade are cartoon characters in the C.O.P.S. (Central Organization of Police Specialists) series licensed by Hasbro which ran from 1988-1989.

Mace and Nightshade's Profile
Mace (renamed as "Titan" in brazilian version), a hardened COP, and Nightshade, a hardened Crook, both have a soft spot (and a loving relationship too) for one another, and are greatly in love with each other despite being on opposite sides of the law.

Sgt. Mace
Sergeant Mace is a member of the Philadelphia S.W.A.T. team with a heart of gold, able to single-handedly take down Crooks in the most dangerous situations whether it is during hostage takeovers or police stand-offs. He has a vast array of weapons he has fully mastered using, including his lazer bazooka that he uses from time to time in battles against Big Boss and his thugs. Because of his excellent performance, Bulletproof had to take him in and make him a part of C.O.P.S. Mace, usually friendly and jovial around his friends and fellow C.O.P.S., is often seen with Barricade, a calm, cool, and collected cop, who is known to maintain his coolness in the most heated of situations; quite the opposite of Mace's occasional hot-headed behavior.

Mace's Hot Headedness
Mace is a hot-head who has been known to sometimes lose his cool whenever things get heated up. In one episode, The Case of the Lawless Lady, Mace got so mad at Highway (supposedly his best friend) for saying something insulting, that he got into a fistfight with him. As a result, Bulletproof had to suspend the two C.O.P.S. officers for two weeks. In another episode, The Case of the Bogus Justice Machine, Barricade had to quiet and restrain Mace for ranting and making violent threats just as Vargas was about to activate the button that would cause the Vetrocon factory building (used to manufacture the Instant Justice Machines) to blow up. Another episode, The Case of the Invisible Crime, had Mace highly annoyed by Airwave and his constant babbling. Airwave is the newest member of C.O.P.S. who serves the team as a communications expert and could make an excellent sportscaster if he hadn't chosen to be part of C.O.P.S.

Nightshade
Nightshade is a cat burglar, who slips in quietly into whatever place she finds of interest, steals a certain item (mainly jewelry), and quickly slips away undetected. At her job, she is seen in her brown and yellow stunt uniform with her tool belt wrapped around her waist. The belt contains all of the tools needed to help her during her latest heist. She also has long, red hair, wears blue eye makeup, and large gold triangular earrings. At other times she has dressed up in a blue jacket worn with a purple, casual dress underneath. Nightshade is greedy and would sometimes argue with Big Boss over whether or not she is either promoted or going to get a raise. She sometimes also expresses her disgruntlement of working for a selfish crimeboss. Imitating Big Boss in her own words, "I want this, I want that! Someday I'm gonna tell Big Boss off!" Despite this, Nightshade is perhaps the most reliable criminal in the series and one of the few who seems reasonably intelligent.

Nightshade's Rich Background
It is known that Nightshade came from a very rich family, who disowned her when she turned herself to a life of crime and started to commit robberies to satisfy her greed. She has a sister named Cathleen, who thinks Nightshade is living in Europe, but she is mistaken. Cathleen is never without her close friend, companion, and mentor named Nancy, who is seen with her on all sorts of occasions, including going on shopping trips and checking out special jewelry displays. Nightshade loves her sister dearly and warns her 'not to grow up like herself.'

In the comics, Nightshade is misidentified as Mirage, while in the cartoon, Mirage is really a different character. Mirage, in the cartoon, is one of the C.O.P.S. Officers, who works as a undercover officer.

The Case of Mace's Romance
Mace and Nightshade have a romantic relationship with each other. Because of this, Mainframe has been known to make jokes about it much to Mace's annoyance. When Mace and Nightshade first met in this episode, it wasn't really romantic at first. Mace was doing his job of making an arrest and Nightshade was the one he was after for a crime she didn't commit. While he does capture Nightshade, she repeatedly escapes by telling Mace that his shoes are untied, which Mace falls for in spite of the fact that he is wearing boots. Nightshade is accused of kidnapping her own sister, while in fact it was Buttons McBoomBoom, who disguised himself as Nightshade, kidnapped Cathleen and framed Nightshade for it. This was done at Big Boss's orders because he wanted Nightshade to rob a ballroom of charity money being raised to help the city's homeless, but she demanded that he pay her more than he gave her to do the heist. As a result, Big Boss blackmailed her by sending McBoomBoom over to kidnap her sister, framing Nightshade for it so she will do the crime for nothing. Later on, Nightshade is reunited with her sister in a ballroom where Big Boss plans to steal charity raised at the party. There, Nightshade helps Mace rescue her sister, clear her name, and prevent the ballroom heist. Though Nightshade willingly gave herself up, Mace instead gives her a chance to escape by pretending to tie his shoes. Later, just after Mace yells at Mainframe, "GO TO WOOOORRRRRK!!!" after being highly annoyed by her making jokes about him and Nightshade while chanting, "Mace got a girlfriend", Nightshade calls up Mace at the 647 Precinct to thank him once again for helping in clearing her name and rescue her sister from the crooks. There, romance begins to bloom and blossom as Nightshade blows a kiss from the precinct window just before taking off into the night - and we see Nightshade's kiss on Mace's right cheek a moment later.

The Case of the Lawless Lady
In this episode, Mace and Highway got into a fight with each other over something Highway said that was offensive and had to be suspended for two weeks by Bulletproof. Mace, in the meantime, was able to go out on a date with Nightshade at an outdoor restaurant, who asked him if he could marry her. Mace says he will, but on the condition that she gives up her criminal ways and go straight. That's difficult thing to do for a crook like Nightshade, who Mace began to ask about the several jewelry stores that had been robbed not too long ago. He asks if she was the one who robbed them. She replies that she was not, but Mace doesn't believe her and tries to arrest her after she giving him a kiss with her knockout lipstick she put on. But, Nightshade gets away and Mace falls to the ground, fast asleep. He awoke a short while later to get a large bill from the waiter and a purse Nightshade has left behind, containing the knockout lipstick and a map to an area where all of the jewelry stores have been robbed.

Mace reports this to Bulletproof, who thought he told him he was suspended for two weeks. Mace shows Bulletproof Nightshade's purse with the lipstick and the map inside. The map contains all of the jewelry stores that have been marked to represent the stores that have been robbed. The center one is the store that Nightshade most likely will be planning on robbing. The trouble is, that store is guarded by a mean, vicious dog named Shredder, whom Nightshade encountered when she broke into the store. Bulletproof reinstated Mace and had him go after Nightshade, who is hiding way above on the top shelf away from Shredder. Mace arrived and encountered the store's proprietor, who was actually the one who robbed the jewelry stores so that he can sell the stolen loot at his own store. He now knows Nightshade was telling the truth all along when she claimed she didn't rob the stores. The proprietor ordered Shredder after Mace, who got up on the top shelf with Nightshade to escape from him. As the proprietor is making his escape, Mace takes Nightshade's lipstick and uses on himself and smooches the dog with it, putting the mean old dog to sleep. Next, Nightshade took down the proprietor and... of all things.... placed him under arrest - something a crook could never do.

Nightshade, however, was put in jail for attempted robbery. But Mace tells Nightshade that the Judge plans on sentencing her on probation for helping him solve the caper and catching the real crook. He gives her an engagement ring, telling her he didn't steal it, he just bought it. With that Nightshade responded, "Kiss me you dumb Cop" and they smooched. But Nightshade gasped, "Mace! Did you wiped out that knockout lipstick you put on?!" "I...for...got." Mace replied as he falls to the floor. "So...did...I." Nightshade said as she too fell to the floor of the prison cell - and the two are fast asleep. Highway, looking on, just had to make this remark, "What a way to spend a romance."