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 former 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 took him in and made 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) that he got into a fistfight with him. As a result, Bulletproof had to suspend the two C.O.P.S. officers for two days. 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.

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. Sometimes Nightshade would put on a disguise that helps her and Big Boss carry out their criminal plans without being detected by even the C.O.P.S. team themselves. 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 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, significant 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. Her real name is Rafaella Diamond. She has a sister named Cathleen, who thinks Nightshade is living in Europe, but she is mistaken. Cathleen is never without her older sister 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 an undercover the C.O.P.S. 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 after disguising himself as Nightshade, kidnaps Cathleen and frame 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 for a lousy 10% cut, but she refuses, demanding to be paid more to do the heist. As a result, Big Boss force her to do the heist by sending McBoomBoom over to kidnap her sister, framing Nightshade for it so she will do the crime, whether she likes it or not. Later on, Nightshade is reunited with her sister in a ballroom where Big Boss is there to steal charity being 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 over whether or not Nightshade was responsible for a string of jewelry store robberies that just occurred, leading Bulletproof to suspended both of them for two weeks. Later, Mace went 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 the C.O.P.S. are investigating, asking her if she was the one who robbed them. She replies that she wasn't, but Mace doesn't believe her, and tries to arrest her after she tries to give him a kiss with her knockout lipstick she put on. But, Nightshade gets away and Mace, affected by the lipstick, falls to the ground and was 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 soon. The trouble is that the 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 arrives to find himself escaping from Shredder by jumping up on the same shelf Nightshade is at. Both conversed together before encountering the store's proprietor who have just been apprehended by Highway. The proprietor turned out to be the true perpetrator responsible for robbing all the jewelry stores so that he can sell the stolen items at his own store. The proprietor ordered Shredder after Highway and prepares to make his escape with the stolen loot. To save Highway, Mace takes Nightshade's lipstick and uses it 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: "You're Under Arrest....YUCK! I Can't believe I said that!!"

Nightshade, however, was put in jail for attempted robbery. But Mace tells Nightshade that the Judge may plan on putting 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 kissed. But Nightshade gasped, "Mace! Did you wipe off that knockout lipstick you've put on a while back?!" "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."

Bulletproof remarks on his summary of the case, that Nightshade is considered on probation and reformed. Her final fate is unknown, but it can be assumed that she had accepted Mace's marriage proposal.