The Mobius Hunt
By
Adune23
Hunting Partner
Rouge smiled as she flew over the crumbling temple, vines and trees covering it's long lost majesty. Of course Rouge could have cared less for the state of the architecture, she was more interested in what was inside. A gem so rare it was believed to be one of a kind was supposed to lay within, and to Rouge The Bat, that was like a siren's song. "I hope it's still here after all this time." Rouge thought as she landed in front of the half collapsed entrance. Rouge hesitated for an instant, now that she was closer the entrance seemed far more foreboding than it had a second ago. "Wow this place could give a demon nightmares, and is it just me or does it feel colder than it did?" Deciding she didn't care as long as a rare gem was involved, Rouge walked briskly inside.
Pulling out a flashlight Rouge proceeded down a dank stone corridor leading to the center of the temple. Rouge shortly reached a central chamber with an alter in the exact center. The room was empty except for the alter, though the walls were decorated with some very elaborate murals. Looking closely at the murals Rouge beheld images of human priests engaged in strange rituals. In what seemed to be the first image the priests discovered some kind of holy artifact. In the second image the priests were shown worshiping a grotesque monster hovering over a fountain of blood. In the next picture the priests preformed miracles of healing using their blood. Then the images showed people transforming into beasts and killing people as the priests celebrated. The image went on to show people undergoing a ritual to become warriors capable of fighting the beasts. In the final group of images the priests were slain by a group of warriors who then banished the monster the priests worshipped and built this temple to seal them away forever.
"Give me a break, the only human on Mobius is Eggman and he arrived here by accident." As she scoffed Rouge noticed that the last picture was in this chamber and depicted the alter as being over a break in the floor. "So that's it." Rouge smirked as she walked over to the alter, examined it for a moment then demolished it with a single well placed kick. Rouge staggered back gagging as a smell like rotting flesh filled the chamber from the newly revealed pit. Struggling to breath through her mouth as much as possible Rouge descended a set of stairs covered in human bones and dust. "Looks like I'm the first one here in millennia, so why does it smell like something is rotting down there?" As Rouge traveled down the stairs she saw more and more bones, they looked human but as she went deeper she became less and less certain. Some looked too big, or long, or thick to belong to any human, and just looking at them gave Rouge the creeps. "I hope that gem is easy to find, I don't want to be down here any longer than I have to." Finally the stairs ended in a massive room filled with bones. Shining her flashlight around Rouge finally spotted her prize, on a pedestal in the center of the chamber. The gem looked like an uncut ruby the size of a fist but it had what looked like black veins running through it. The gem pulsed with a faint red light as Rouge grabbed it from the pedestal. "Come to mama." Rouge giggled as she examined the gem. Rouge stared at her prize amazed at how easy it had been to retrieve it. She had expected it to be protected by pits filled with spikes and poison darts, not a creepy mural and a bad smell. As Rouge left with the odd gemstone she failed to notice the strange inscription on the pedestal. Written in a language older than time it read. . . . .Let the hunt begin.
Rouge raced home with her latest acquisition to her home in Night Babylon. Night Babylon was a thriving city and Rouge's home slash place of business. A city of gambling, fine restaurants, theaters, and high class hotels, Night Babylon was perfect for Rouge. Gliding over the rooftops of the city Rouge looked down on all the citizens going about their lives. Vendors, shoppers, high rollers, the kind of people who made the city what it was. As Rouge admired her home she felt a strange feeling come over her. Suddenly she reached into her bag to retrieve the gem, for some reason she had to see it again. Pulling out her prize Rouge held it in front of her face. "OW!" Rouge cried out in pain as the gem suddenly felt red hot. Unable to retain her hold on it Rouge released the gem. Ignoring her injured hand Rouge dove after her prize. "Pleasedontbreakpleasedontbreakpleasedontbreak!" Rouge almost caught the gem but it seemed to jink to the side of her outstretched hand of it's own accord. Rouge barely managed to pull out of her dive in time to avoid becoming a pancake, then the gem hit the ground. . . . and shattered.
An explosion of blood red mist erupted from the gem engulfing the entire street before vanishing amid a sound of roaring wind and screaming pedestrians. Rouge was blasted from the sky by the explosion falling a short distance before hitting the ground next to where the gem shattered. Looking up from her prone position Rouge nearly had a heart attack. A man stood over her, in one hand he held a massive ax, and in the other a long barreled antique pistol. He was dressed in armor that made him look like an ancient knight. the armor was made of leather and cloth with square metal plates covering part's of it. The armor must have been intended to allow it's wearer to move unobstructed because large parts of it had no metal on them. The man's face was obscured by a helmet covered in intricate scrollwork featuring vines and flowers. The man stank of blood and sweat and he seemed to be looking around in confusion. Suddenly he seemed to come to a decision and charged at the crowd staring at him.
"DIE BEASTS!"
Rushing the closest member of the crowd the man swung his ax in a brutal overhead strike. Fortunately he was a little disoriented so his victim was able to dodge in time. However Rouge felt her eyes widen in shock when the man's ax struck the ground with enough force to pulverize the concrete sidewalk into powder. Seeing the man raise his pistol Rouge jumped up and kicked the weapon out of his hand.
"I don't know what your deal is but this is MY town your wrecking!"
Rouge expected her opponent to attack , but instead he froze and stared at her.
"You can speak, how is that possible?!"
The man's voice sounded genuinely confused and a little frightened.
"I learned in school, they also taught manners, something you obviously never learned."
The man continued to stare at Rouge.
"I don't understand, once a man becomes a beast they lose the ability to reason."
Rouge felt her anger rise.
"What do you mean beast!? I'm not the one swinging an ax at pedestrians!"
The man paused before replying.
"I-I don't understand, is this another dream? Beasts that act and talk like men? Where am I? I was fighting in Yharnam then I was engulfed in a red mist, now I'm in this place."
Rouge was wondering if this was some kind of insane trick. But this guy seemed to genuinely not understand anything that was happening.
"Look all I know is that after my gem stone broke you showed up and started trying to murder random people on the street!"
Suddenly the man's head jerked in Rouges direction.
"A stone? What kind of stone?" He demanded.
Rouge was a little startled by his sudden change of tone, but decided to answer.
"A big red stone that glowed faintly and with black veins running through it, why?"
The man nodded.
"Now I understand, A blood crystal sphere, I thought they were a myth."
Rouge was wondering if this guy was even more insane than she thought.
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"When the Healing Church first began to worship the Great Ones they were given the spheres so they might visit other worlds. I suppose the one you had must have brought me here, where is it?" The man's explanation made no sense to Rouge except the last part.
"I have no idea what that meant, but my gem was smashed."
The man stared at Rouge for a moment.
"How in the hell do you smash a divine artifact!" He roared.
Rouge took a certain pleasure in the man's anger as she answered.
"Dropping it from five hundred feet up helps." She replied sarcastically.
The man seemed about to respond when the police finally arrived. Rouge was never on the best of terms with police of any kind, even if they could never pin her for anything.
"Better scram handsome, the cops around here are a real pain especially to would be ax murderers." Rouge said offhandedly as she prepared to fly. Only before she could take off a sharp pain shot through her right wing. "Oh come on, haven't I suffered enough today?" By now the police had Rouge and the ax wielding nut pretty well surrounded.
"Alright pal put the ax down, no one needs to get hurt here!" Yelled a fat dog through a megaphone. Rouge swiftly identified him as the NBPD chief Ralf Rigman, who had threatened her with prison more times than she could count.
"I am not interested in hurting you, this is a rather complex misunderstanding." Replied the armored figure as he sheathed his ax. Unfortunately the instant the man put away his weapon one of the cops shot him with a tazer.
"Ooh that's gotta. . . ." Rouge trailed off, instead of writhing in pain the man grabbed the tazer contacts and ripped them from his body with only a slight grunt of pain.
"What the hell was that for?!"The man snarled dropping the tazer wires to the ground. The response was six more tazer's, but he dodged them with astounding ease for a guy in armor. "Fine have it your way." He growled redrawing his ax, clearly done talking. But before he could hurl himself at the police Rouge grabbed the mans arm.
"Hold it slim, I'm no fan of cops but cutting them in half is a lousy way to deal with them." Rouge was a little curious how the fat slob of a police chief would handle a rampaging knight. But she couldn't just let this nut chop him like kindling, though his next comment made her very tempted.
"Rouge the Bat, so moving up to homicide are we? What stealing lose it's thrill? Gold digging not paying the bills?" The chief asked snidely.
"Fuck you piggman!" Rouge sniped causing several officers to snicker. "In case you hadn't noticed I'm trying to keep your fat ass alive!"
"Yeah right, I caught you red handed this time, witnesses say you brought this psycho here after throwing some kind of bomb! You'll be doing hard time for this!" Rigman called back sounding almost gleeful. "Take em down boys!"
Five cops surged forward brandishing shock batons, and Rouge decided it was time to leave.
"C'mon handsome time to excuse ourselves."
"Why? They started this, and a hunter never backs down from a fight!" Came the enraged response.
"Look you obviously don't get it, you start killing cops and next they'll send the army after us. Besides those guys may be imbeciles but they have family's, and this is a fight we can avoid if you listen to me!" Rouge hissed through clenched teeth.
Relenting the man allowed Rouge to pull him into an alleyway. Rouge led them through alleys and back streets for over an hour before finally reaching a safe house she had built for occasions when the heat got turned up. The safe house was built into a non descript brick wall, and opened with a hidden keypad. Punching the proper code into the pad the concealed door opened and revealed a short staircase leading to a large lavishly appointed room. Thick carpet expensive artwork and a full bar made the place look more like a penthouse than a safe room.
"Welcome to my home away from home." Rouge said smugly as her guest looked around. "It has everything food, water, clothing, showers, all the comforts of home."
Rouge's guest looked around for awhile clearly fascinated.
"What manner of candle has no flame?" He asked staring at the overhead lighting. "And who is playing that music?" Rouge assumed he was referring to the sound system.
"Haven't you ever seen electric lighting before or heard recorded music?" Rouge asked not certain if this guy was playing her or not.
"I have never heard of such a thing, is it a kind of magic?"
Rouge was excellent at knowing when people were lying, so the fact that this guy seemed to be telling the truth was surprising.
"No it's not magic, but first things first you must have a name care to share it?"
The man nodded.
"My name is Kagen Blackhand," Unbuckling his helmet Kagen removed it as he finished. "and it's a pleasure to meet you miss 'Rouge' was it?" Rouge didn't respond immediately as the man's face was surprisingly handsome, soft features made him seem young but he carried himself with a confidence born of experience. He had long unkempt black hair that was in desperate need of a wash, but still looked decent. His piercing green eyes were alert and intelligent, and Rouge felt her breath catch slightly. His look was best described as gothic prince charming only he looked a lot tougher than some pansy prince. Kagen gave a bow as he introduced himself making Rouge suppress a giggle.
"Well Kagen looks like were stuck together for the foreseeable future so we might as well get to know each other." Here Rouge gave a slightly embarrassed cough. "But first why don't you take a shower, not to put too fine a point on it but, you smell like blood sweat and ashes."
Kagen nodded.
"Very well, but could you tell me what a 'shower' is?"
Rouge sighed.
"Just get undressed, and I'll show you."
Kagen stared at Rouge like she had just asked him to have sex with a cow.
"I am not removing my armor, how do I know you won't try to kill me the moment it's removed?!"
Rouge gave Kagen an annoyed look.
"If I wanted to try and kill you I would have attacked you already! Beside's there is no way I am letting you stink up this place for the next week, now strip!"
Kagen and Rouge glared at each other, neither willing to give in to the other. Rouge was a little surprised, most men would do anything she wanted. Wether out of fear or attraction, Rouge could get any man to lower his guard. Kagen however was completely unfazed by Rouge, he was not afraid of her and her good looks seemed to be totally lost on him. The only way Rouge could win was by giving him some reassurance that he wouldn't be attacked. In the end she decided there was only one choice.
"What if I get undressed too?"
Kagen didn't even considered the idea.
"No."
Rouge's jaw fell open, did a male just refuse a chance to see her undress. She had guy's who would literally kill for a chance like that and this guy refused like it was nothing? Rouge had never had anyone reject her before, well except for Shadow and Knuckles. Rouge felt like she wanted to punch Kagen in the face.
"Why am I not good enough?!" Rouge demanded.
Even though she never intended to actually strip, just trick Kagen with a false offer, she still felt angry.
"It has nothing to do with you being unattractive, it's a matter of not trusting you." Kagen said evenly.
That just made Rouge even angrier.
"I just saved your ungrateful ass from being arrested!"
"No." Kagen responded "You saved those idiots from being my prey."
Rouge wanted to argue but had to admit Kagen had a point. Kagen was definitely more dangerous than the cop's. His whole persona, from his clothes to his method of speech screamed "Professional Killer". Rouge was even a little scared of him herself.
"What can I do to gain your trust?" Rouge asked exasperated.
Kagen considered the question before responding.
"Retrieve my pistol 'Evelyn', the one you kicked out of my hand."
"Are you INSANE!? That area is going to be crawling with cop's, plus I can't fly with a hurt wing! You can't seriously expect me to go back there!" Rouge protested.
Kagen was unmoved.
"Then I will make you an additional offer, recover my weapon and I will swear myself to your service for three month's time."
Rouge was about to argue again when she considered what Kagen was offering. With Kagen at her side Rouge could easily grab hold of the one gem set she had never been able to steal, the seven Chaos Emeralds. Kagen was definitely strong enough to keep up with her, and with a little modern training he could become the partner she always wanted. The more Rouge thought about it the more she liked the idea.
"Ok Kagen I'll retrieve your precious gun in exchange for that."
Kagen nodded.
"Very well, retrieve my pistol and you will have my loyalty for three months."
Rouge grabbed a few items from her thieving kit treated her injured wing and headed out.
"Just, don't touch anything while I'm gone."