Prologue

Night fell quickly upon Central City – as always. The sun disappeared behind the white fuzzy clouds and the sky turned pink as the sun set. If anybody was looking to the west, they would have been met by a truly spectacular view, but of course, who would want to look at the view in Central City?

The night fell faster, ebony replacing the pink skies and most of the citizens living in Central City were asleep by this time. However, several were still awake, whether they had business to attend to, or if they just couldn't sleep.

One of these was a certain bat – named Rouge. Rouge had just been discharged from one of GUN's meeting buildings, alone. She hadn't been briefed on her latest mission there, but she had been sent to another top secret location, which she had been told was a small bar just off of the Main Street.

Of course, Rouge scoffed at this – 'A bar? That's their idea of a 'top secret location? I swear to god that my boss is starting to loose his crackers!' – But went anyways, thinking vaguely of the mission that she was about to complete, and wondering if there were any jewels, or jewel thieves involved.

Jewels were Rouge's forte. Rouge was an ex-jewel thief, and a very good one at that. GUN had recruited her simply because of her knack for finding things quickly and simply, a talent that was very rare within the forces during that time period. Rouge happily accepted the job, of course, and her pay was very good.

Rouge often missed the old days, when she would be stealing a jewel, returning to her home, packing her things and moving to find another, but she appreciated the fact that a.) What she was doing was good for the country and b.) Her new job was well paid, with a house involved and the excitement was still there anyway.

Rouge flew to the little bar quickly. She'd deeply considered stealing her boss's Lamborghini but as they considered it she felt quite mean, and so she decided to fly to the bar instead, thinking vaguely that she hadn't flown for a long time and quite frankly, she missed the rush that flying brought.

Once Rouge arrived at the bar, she gracefully landed beside the door and checked herself over – she wanted to look decent for her company, especially if it was who she thought it was… not allowing herself to be distracted, Rouge glided into the bar and looked around as the heat from the open fire hit her.

There were only about ten customers in the bar, all of them sober. There was nobody there that she could see being part of GUN, and Rouge vaguely wondered if she'd been stood up, in a weird kind of way. Glancing around again, Rouge looked into a corner and was met with a pair of ruby red eyes.

She knew those eyes. The eyes of Shadow the Hedgehog met Rouge's and Rouge couldn't hold back a grin which she hastily turned into a smirk as she glided over to Shadow and sat down opposite him, watching the black and red Hedgehog finish his drink, which was just a bottle of water.

"Figured they'd send you," Shadow was nonchalant and he tried not to meet Rouge's eyes too often. That bat always seemed to know what people were thinking and feeling, just through eye contact.

"Gee Shadow, it's lovely to see you too," Rouge sounded sarcastic, but when Shadow glanced up at her, her eyes were clear, deep blue and Shadow felt as if Rouge was penetrating his very soul. He worked to shake off those feelings.

"Maybe we can get down to business," Shadow said, standing up and throwing Rouge a scornful glare. Rouge rolled her eyes and stood up gracefully. Her wings spread out and she playfully raised one eyebrow at Shadow.

"Maybe we can. I didn't come down here to chat," Rouge's voice was so cold that Shadow felt himself shiver slightly. He didn't like the edge to her voice, but he said nothing, thinking vaguely of politeness and trying to think of what his old best friend, Maria, would do in this kind of situation. Smile and walk away, probably.

Rouge seated herself comfortably and Shadow didn't move an inch. Rolling her eyes, Rouge glared at Shadow. She tried to act don't-care-ish when she was in Shadow's presence, and her façade certainly had Shadow himself fooled – in fact, Rouge would have been shocked if she knew that Shadow thought she hated him.

"Brief me?" Rouge asked suddenly, all business. She leaned her elbows on the table and cupped her chin with one hand. Shadow's ears rose visibly and he leaned back a little, putting his water bottle down as he opened his mouth.

"A few days ago at base Commander Jacobs caught a signal of energy unlike anything we've seen in a long time moving across the coast of Wave Ocean at Sonic speed. The energy patterns were traceable but by the time we got a batch of agents down there, there was no sign of anything or anyone.

"We saved the energy patterns and found a matching template to the energy readings, and let me tell you, you're going to love this," Shadow flashed Rouge a brief grin, but Rouge was too occupied by the mission details to return it. "The energy readings are matching the blue Chaos Emerald."

Rouge's expression turned down into a frown as she glanced at the door and she looked none other than puzzled before she replied to Shadow in a quiet voice, all joking and flirty ideas gone from her devious mind.

"But doesn't Sonic have the blue Chaos Emerald?" Rouge finally asked, breaking the long and awkward silence. Shadow seemed pleased Rouge had asked this and nodded, leaning in again to resume his briefing.

"He does. This emerald is identical to the emerald Sonic has, but it's different in a physical way. It's turquoise blue, not dark blue like the emerald Sonic has. Trivial I know, but it's the only difference we can find."

"It's the same, only its light blue?" Rouge summed up. Her voice was sarcastic – she obviously didn't believe this, but at the same time, she had to. The story made sense, but Rouge didn't have the first idea on how to go about collecting the light blue Chaos Emerald that they had discovered.

Shadow nodded briefly and threw down three dollars for the water and the time in the bar. Shadow gestured to the door and Rouge stood up, waiting for Shadow to grab his long, black trench coat and followed him to the door, trying to ignore the creepy barman, who kept winking and staring at her.

"Come on Rouge, there are still some minor details that General Jackson needs to discuss with you up in the main HQ… I'll answer any questions you have on the way there…"