Mend a Faux Pas with One Last Chance

Prologue

For all of you who haven't gotten the news: This is the former IsaacGaretMia, now named Solis Knight. I apologize to those of you who had not heard of the name change and have been looking for me, but look no farther.

Here it is, the moment you've all been waiting for. Hell, the moment I'VE been waiting for… for FOUR months. Four months of hard work, but it's finally finished. Fourteen chapters, 38 thousand words, according to the chapter-less document, and it's finally finished. This was originally meant to be a 20 thousand word long one-shot, but I overshot that mark way too easily. By the time I had finished, it was over 36 thousand words long, unedited.

So I just ask that you sit back, enjoy the ride, and immerse yourselves into the world that you all know… the planet…

Earth.

Disclaimer: Sonic the Hedgehog is owned by the Sonic team and Sega. However, due to a loophole in the system, every single character action within this story belongs to me. So I pretty much own this story. Fancy that.

Rouge once again glared at her superior, the leader of the GUN forces. The General. He was being a complete asshole… Again. Rolling her eyes, she wondered how she had ended up in this drab, dismal room again, for the eightieth time this week. She noticed, yet again, the whiteboard to the left side of the room, detailing battle plans, photographs of city layouts, and army positions. Several photographs contained Shadow in them, as if the General had been tailing him… which he had been. Toward the back of the room, one way mirrors allowed its occupants to see outside to the city beyond, while none of the outside world could see back. To the right of her lay a room's width of filing cabinets, some of whose drawers were open and filled with manila folders. Most contained labels on the top, like "PAYMENT RECEIPTS" and "Shipment Invoices", as if anyone gave a damn anymore about what was in them. It wasn't like someone was going through them, looking for obscure bits of information nightly over a few cans of Red Bull. Rouge was standing in front of a comfortable, if small, chair that had been conveniently moved from the other side of the room for her. The General was sitting behind his desk, upon which several papers, a computer, and memory storage devices were scattered like grass seed. Rouge declined to sit, showing her equality by speaking to the General on equal terms, instead of enabling him to belittle her as she sat in a lower position. In this way, she told him that she wasn't going to stand for any bullshit.

Speak of the devil, that's what she was receiving from him right now. Their current focus of discussion was a mission sent out two months ago, in which one of their operatives was supposed to pick up a crucial shipment of weapons and ammunition and deliver it to the armory in Westopolis. Their operative, upon receiving the package, was not sighted again after setting out. A day later, in Westopolis, the crate arrived… without its carrier. The armory had no clues as to the whereabouts of the agent, and that was two months ago. GUN still hadn't heard from him, and now Rouge had to advocate the same case over and over again, just so the General could wave it off as if it were nothing. And that was what was happening now.

"What of it, Rouge? He's gone AWOL. There's nothing to it." The General, once again, reiterated himself. Rouge was to the point of breaking something by now. Did the General care so little about his comrades? Their agent was supposed to be one of their own. Rouge personally knew him, and she knew that he wouldn't go AWOL. Not like this.

"I'm telling you again, General. He's still out there. Probably captured. And you haven't done anything… For two months. He could be dead right now, and we wouldn't even know it. Is that how you treat your men?" Rouge herself repeated. She was thoroughly pissed now. Men had such thick skulls… You could say it over and over, and they just wouldn't get it. They would cling to their misguided beliefs even when the truth is so plainly in sight, and refuse to believe it if it were shoved ten feet up their own asses.

"And I say that it's no use to look for him! You said it yourself, he's probably dead. Just forget about him and move on, for Chaos' sake!" The General snapped at her. Any other subordinate would cower in fear at this point, afraid of losing their job. But Rouge knew better. They needed her skills, and no sane leader would dare fire her… If they wanted to keep their money. The General was spared a scathing remark by a soldier entering from the information/radar lab. He was holding what looked to be a paper filled with lines of code. Rouge suddenly perked up with interest, scanning the page out of the corner of her eye for anything interesting. Usually it was just another photograph or battle plan. But if they took the time to copy out one of their codes, you knew something was up.

"Sir, we've got a problem, sir!" The soldier saluted, shouting out the traditional mantra. Nodding, the General took the paper from the lackey and skimmed through it. His mouth curled into a frown.

"Are you sure about this? We haven't seen activity from him in two months." The General asked, prompting Rouge's incredulous stare. Two months… the timelines overlapped. Could it be him? But no, her hopes were to be shot down once again as the soldier nodded and the General began to explain his orders.

"Well, Rouge… Looks like our little "chat" is going to have to be cut short. Eggman's got some sort of plan going down. Our radar has picked up an unusual signal from within his base of operations. I order you to take whatever operatives you need to investigate the source, and destroy it if possible." The General paused, before adding, "And do make sure to stay out of danger. Send in Sonic if you need to. Eggman's up to something…" The General muttered, stroking his chin thoughtfully. Of course, that was a given with the fat scientist. Always plotting… Always working… Didn't the good doctor ever take a freaking break?!

"Yes, sir…" Rouge excused herself from the pompous ass… err, the General. Walking down the hallway, she flicked open the lid on her wrist communicator, and punched in a few commands. Tails may have been a genius, but he sucked at making manuals for all the shit he made. Rouge barely knew how to contact the others with this thing, much less all of the unnecessary but useful functions he packed into the watch.

"Sonic. Get Tails and get over to Eggman's base. I got a job for ya." Rouge spoke into the communicator. Inside the machine, several computers were already processing the information from the microphone input and vision sensor. Immediately, digital binary bits flooded the transmitter as visual and audio data was compiled and compressed. The bits were then sent straight to an orbital receiver dish, where the signals took a proverbial break, technically being amplified, before being re sent out to the other communicator or communicators.

In a few seconds, Rouge's watch lit up, and a virtual display of Sonic popped up in 3-D above it. It looked completely realistic, besides the fact that he looked like you would expect a virtual display to look. The information flooding her communicator was transmitted to the computers, which was then converted back into the image and audio outputs. Color was minimal, and everything looked like it was shaded in different hues of blue. Granted, Sonic was a blue hedgehog, but even Rouge could see that it wasn't all supposed to be that way. His voice crackled out of the speakers, responding to her call.

"Alright. Meet ya there, batgirl. Don't be late." Rouge chuckled at this, considering that she would probably arrive about half an hour after Sonic would. The fastest hedgehog alive was probably faster than GUN's own sonic jets, which could travel faster than the speed of sound. Sonic's name was rightly given. Sighing, she took the speed route to the roof of the unnecessarily large headquarters. Spreading her wings wide, she took off at a run, relishing the wind flowing past her body. Her surroundings became a set of blurred lines and fuzzy images as she took off, soaring into the sky before flying toward the rendezvous point. The mission had begun.