Made a boo-boo last chapter(several actually, ehhee). Rouge has green eyes, not blue, my B. ;P

I'm sorry for not posting in so long. Writers block and all. I know what I want to happen, but it's stuck because I'm worried I'm gonna forget something. I think I got this now. Shouldn't be a huge wait for the next one this time. ^o^

As I was writing this chapter, I realised I had done just that. So, quick fix, and it's all good. Thankfully, this is a universe where more than one person can run at the speed of sound. ;P

-Chapter 112: Here and Now-

That morning Rouge woke up with a snake in her bed. The small camp with limited resources had several tents made up of a rope tied between two trees, with a sheet thrown over top. She laid on the ground in her sleeping bag, beneath the sheet canopy, frozen, terrified to move. 'If I get bitten, will I heal because of Shadow? If not, can Shadow come and help me? Can I even reach him? I doubt they have antivenom on hand.' The snake was right beneath her left leg and seemed to coil near her tail. She made a plan of action. In her mind, she visualise the snake beneath her left leg and thigh. 'It has a front end and a back side. If I can grab both at the same time, I'll be guaranteed to grab the pointy end.'

With a quick motion, Rouge launched her right hand in front of herself, under her thigh, and the left behind herself, near her tail. She succeeded in not being bitten but stunned herself by grabbing her own tail.

Rouge sat up and looked in her right hand. A long thin white tail laid in her palm. She was able to move it back and forth at the tip. Rouge gave a startled scream and jumped up from her bed. She followed the white tail around and it was definitely attached to her backside. "Where did-"

A nearby soldier heard her yelp. "Is everything okay, Rouge?" Roater asked and opened the tent flap slightly with a rifle tip.

"Yes, darling! I mistook a good bug for a bad bug. Now, uh, shoo-shoo, little cricket." Rouge pretended to guide a bug out the backside of her tent.

"Tropical places like these are teeming with poisonous critters; better safe than sorry."

Rouge shared something she'd learned about the island, "There aren't any poisonous lizards on the island, except snakes; takes a little bit of the guesswork out of that, at least," she tried to sound casual as she stood still and blocked Roater from seeing her newly lengthened appendage.

"Everyone's getting ready to head to the meeting spot where team member Sticks is waiting. Are you coming with us?" Roster asked.

"Not right away. They asked me to do another fly by to look for supplies or any more survivors. I'll be by after I'm finished, I know how to get there," She said and watched the tent flap close.

"Right, we still have seven to go, I think. Six Bolt members and one more villager." He paused before he said, "If you're worried about Manic, don't be, he gets ya moved on, okay?" Roater sounded sincere.

"I…" Rouge sighed in relief. "If that's true, then thank you, Roater. Trust me, I'm not what he needs, anymore."

"If you say so," he said and left.

Rouge sighed. 'It hurts to break a heart, but it's necessary.' She looked at her tail with a slightly bored and frustrated expression. "No report said this would happen...hmm."

She examined the rest of herself for changes. A red diamond formed above her tail, and the first length of her wing bones had turned deep red. Removing her gloves revealed no changes, same for her boots. Her pants, however, were several inches too short for her now. She folded her ears down and looked at them in the small pocket mirror she kept with her makeup. Her eyes had a small spot of red on the right hand side.

Rouge shuffled through her bag for her coloured contacts. Before she put them in, she decided to take a picture to show Sonic, so he wouldn't think she was a spy controlled by the crazed doctor. As she posed for the image, she witnessed her eyes change in real time. The red took over so quickly, she only caught the image as the red iris swallowed the final bit of green. She tried to send the image but had no signal. "What a bother."

The imprinting mark on her lower back and lengthened tail were easy enough to conceal, but her eyes were another story. She never wore sunglasses except on the beach, so that would have looked odd. Her colour contacts were the only option. "I almost forgot I had them…" Since she had 'contact' with Shadow's nano machine immune system, her body had healed most of its ailments. Earring holes healed over, scar tissue was gone and any missing or damaged organs returned to a state of perfection, including her eyesight. Rouge put in a single contact and her world blurred significantly. "It's doable, but I'm not going to be able to read a darn thing."

Rouge composed herself with a deep breath. Her slender tail wrapped perfectly around her waist once and fed out the back of her body suit. It lined up with the seam of her clothing and wouldn't be noticeable unless she moved it around. Her reddened wings, when folded, looked black, so she'd be fine unless she was seen from above. Her nervous hand reached for the tent flap that concealed her from the crowd she heard outside. 'Come on Rouge, you can do this.'

When Rouge was confident enough to face the people, she threw the flap open to see a mostly empty campsite. Everyone was still in bed.

She listened around. Voices were all around her. Rouge did her best to not look panicked while she tried to not trip on anything with her lowered visibility. 'Is my hearing better? No. There aren't any air vibrations. Is this…?' She concentrated on the direction her mind told her Shadow was in.

Shadow's voice rang clearly in her mind. He said, '...but I need to need to find out what Amy was trying to warn us about. What 'Scourge' is going to come and destroy us?'

Rouge used her mind and said, 'I...can hear you, darling.' She waited for a reply.

'...Rouge?'

'Yes. Give me a moment,' she said and continued through the camp to the main guidance tent.

Former mayor Fink greeted her with a tired, but hopeful expression. "Good morning, Rouge, my dear. Ready to begin the day?" Fink was the newly appointed to head of finance, and in charge of the search party.

"I am. Any news yet from the other search team?" Rouge saw his expression say it all, "I'll head out right away."

"Take this with you." The chubby old rodent lifted a thick square bag to the table top with a bit of a struggle. "The goggles in here have the ability to filter out non-polarised light, for bright days; Tails also said it also has a motion sensor, but I haven't figured out how it works."

Rouge picked up the bag effortlessly and put it over her shoulder. "Don't worry, sweetheart, I'll manage," she said and left out the front door.

Fink looked shocked at Rouge's display of strength.

'Rouge?'

'Where are you?'

'Desert. Deciphering Amy's warning.'

'Cross Manic off the list. Roater says he's moved on.'

'If you're sure,' He paused and, presumably, wrote things down, 'While that helps, we still have too many variables. It also occurs to me the master emerald is green; I hadn't considered it because we don't know where it is. It's been lost since Angel Island was dropped.'

'Maybe Eggman has it after all and it's what he's using to power his new machines. Sure, he showed us an emerald, probably a fake, that's exactly what he'd do to throw us off. Wouldn't he?' Rouge talked internally and listened as she equipped herself with the search equipment. She don tough gloves and boots, a utility belt with meds, a food supply and Tails handy scrambling technology. The forehead strap came with an adjustable light, black light or infrared light filter attached. Finally, a small hand axe, with a pick on it's opposite end, to get through debris.

'I doubt that. If he had the master emerald, I'm sure we'd all be roboticized and not having this conversation right now, dear.'

'Fair. I suppose if he gets it, we can kiss any plan we could make 'goodbye'. Speaking of which, the doctor can't hear me, can he? Should I worry?'

'Not if you have a scrambler on, no. He's only looking for me, after all; it appears he isn't currently interested in anything else. If he discovers you've been imprinted on, that fact may change.'

'That's reassuring,' she said and planted an unsatisfied fist on her hip.

'I'm sorry.'

'For what?'

'Three days from now, do you know what will happen?'

Rouge placed a hand on her then flat belly.

'Yes…I'm sorry.'

Rouge smiled, 'Don't be. I have an idea that could work out for everyone. Wait and see.'

Shadow sounded relieved, 'If you say so; I'll leave it to you.'

'One last question, darling: Have you gotten taller?'

Shadow went silent for a few seconds. 'I have. I didn't think this would happen overnight. Why do you ask?'

'The outfit I had on before I changed into the search gear, is out of the question. They look like flood pants now.'

'Hmm…okay, I'll account for that too. Thank you.'

Rouge took one final deep breath and took off to search through debris with the others. She was faster, stronger and slightly more aggressive in her mannerisms as she searched in and around flooded homes and piles of trash swept up by the tide.

"You feeling okay, Rouge?" BG asked as she landed nearby, on the roof of her own semi-submerged home. She was decked out in the pinkest jet-pack equipment the mini-build it box could muster. Tails had given her equipment to help manoeuvre easier and assist the search. She sported arm mounted jet packs, a back jet for stability and water ski capable boots with borrowed tech from Shadow. "Lookin' on edge, girl. And I know what the edge is, trust me." BG knew Rouge to be a mostly gentle person, so to see he throwing her weight around was off putting.

Rouge hesitated but admitted to BG very close and quietly, "I want to get this search done successfully, because...I don't have a lot of time: I'm pregnant. If I get found out, they'll bar me from being on the rescue team."

BG contained her enthusiasm at the prospect of a new baby. "Oh, that's so cool! How far are you?" she spoke nearly silently.

Rouge calculated by the hour since early morning, before sunrise, "Two months, two and a half weeks," she said and looked at where the mid afternoon sun cast it's shadows.

"Did you get an ultrasound yet? Or do they do them that early?" BG thought out loud as she took a water bottle from her leg pocket and drank thirstily.

"No." Rouge was curious if BG was still able to hear the hivemind, having had the nano tech in the past. 'Two days and three hours until birth.'

BG chocked on her water a bit. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "Did you say something?" the teen asked with a slightly worried look on her face.

"Yes." Rouge repeated in mind, 'Two days and three hours,' and out loud, "So, not long."

BG capped her bottle and chuckled nervously, "I've been out here too long. The heat's getting to me."

"Dammit, you can still hear," Rouge cussed under her breath and turned away to think.

"Wha-?" BG tilted her head and looked at Rouge who now stood with her back turned. She peeked at Rouge over her folded arms. "Did you get new boots? I don't remember you being this tall."

Rouge's expression looked all too serious as she considered the new information.

"Uh, you've been hanging around with your boss too much. You're starting to look like him. Come on, let's go take a break." She tried to tug Rouge's arm. Shadow's voice popped into her head.

'Letting Sonic know was a good idea, between him and Amy, we should have this taken care of. Be mindful of who you tell in town-'

BG jumped back. "The hell was that!?"

Rouge turned and faced her, "Follow me. We need to get you a portable scrambler, right away." She took off towards the jungle.

"Uh, alright, jeez, hold on!" BG rushed to keep up.

Not far inland, Sticks rushed towards them with a slightly brightened expression, "Hey! We found Xaun!"

Rouge and BG reached Sticks, both with lit up smiles. "There's still a chance Staci made it then! What's Xaun saying?"

"Not much. Come on," Sticks said and led them towards the Froglodyte village. "Before I forget, Amy had the twins; a boy and a girl, Markus and Sophia."

"Aww," BG and Rouge cooed at the news of new babies.

On the dark side, in a secret base hidden betwixt thorns, made of tarnished beach wood, the Lightening Bolt society lay in hiding. They waited on Belinda hand and foot in an attempt to sate her intensely ravenous hunger. She was brought meats and fruits hunted or foraged in the nearby area. Her belly had grown considerably in only a day and a half. She sat in her favourite chair; the only chair they managed to save from the flood.

Belinda and Charlie were two of the few Bolts who managed to hold on to the nano machine gift Eggman gave them. Charlie returned with a clutch of large, dead, swamp frogs he hung from a stick.

Belinda got excited and clasped her hands together, "Frog legs!? I haven't had those in years."

"These used to be so hard to catch in the brush, now that they moved uphill it's so easy; I'd feel bad for them if they weren't food. These also helped," he said and pointed to his eyes. "I can pretty much see were they're going before they make a move."

"That'll be handy in battle too," Belinda kissed her husband who knelt at her side. She looked deep into his red eyes, the same colour as her own.

He placed a hand on his wife's baby bump and felt a hand push back. "It's a boy."

"I'm going to let him pick his own name when he gets here." Belinda nodded as she smiled and teared up. "If that two tailed bastard tries to take our baby from us, it'll be his head."

"I agree completely...but why not take his head anyway?" He closed his eyes and kissed the top of her hand. "We've been trying a lot of exotic foods out here...who says 'brain' is off the menu?"

"We're going to need hot sauce then, so bland," Belinda giggled and waved a playfully dismissive hand at Charlie, "Not like it would make me smarter, now, would it?"

"Only one way to find out. Not that you need it, my love." They kissed again.

The other lightening Bolt members watched on quietly and respectfully. The Chameleon smiled and slowly closed his red eyes and listened to the voices in his mind. 'Xaun is still alive...Froglodyte's, huh...I'll end you for real this time.'

Belinda looked up from her nuptial embrace. "Is that murderous intent I feel, Chameleon?"

He snapped to, "Yes, ma'ma. Sorry to interrupt."

Belinda used a hand motion and shooed him away, "Don't apologise. Go do what you need to. I can't have one of our top ranking members being distracted, now, can I?"

He saluted, turned and left.

A fond memory passed him by.

'Chameleon! Come on, man! Don't do this!' Xaun yelled from the edge of a doorway of their old meeting hall. The town filled up with water faster than they could escape and trapped them inside.

'Don't be an asshole! Help!" Staci tried to move things out of the way to unblock the door and sliced her left arm on a sharp piece of metal. "Ow! Shit! Come on!"

Debris and garbage blocked the only exit and the water began to break windows and fill the Lightening Bolt meeting hall. 'Seriously! I can't swim!' Xaun yelled.

The chameleon stood on a nearby roof and safely watched the surf take the building. It busted into hundreds of pieces and washed away with the tide. Their cries faded and vanished completely.

'Too late...you already had too many chances.'

On the way to the Froglodyte village, Rouge and BG froze. "Someone's coming…"

Rouge looked over and saw confusion in Sticks, terror in BG. Behind them an emotion that felt 'murdery', quickly closed in. "Sticks, you need to hide Xaun if this guy makes it past me. Go, please," she said and reached for the axe she got from her search gear. "You go too, BG."

"This gear isn't good for fighting anyway. Hey, Sticks, hop up." BG offered a piggyback ride.

Sticks cringed and climbed aboard, "I don't like it, but it's the lesser of two evils right noooooooooow," her voice faded as BG jetted them out of there, full speed.

Rouge heaved a deep breath, "We've got enough to deal with, darling. Why don't you be a sweetheart and piss off, hmm?" She looked over her shoulder at The Chameleon in the centre of the path behind her, seemingly bored with his presence.

"You would defend another heart-breaker, wouldn't you?" His gritted teeth looked sharper than before and his eyes had changed to red. His rage fulled his expression of the nano-tech the doctor gave him. "You've got no chance against me. Thanks to Eggman, I'm a super soldier now. Give up, let me end that man-whore and I won't have to kill you too."

Rouge chortled, "Super soldier? Don't make me laugh. You're a hack-meat job, at best. A puppet. A shameful experiment of a pathetic doctor who can't do anything without his pawns playing the game for him." Rouge pointed a thumb at her chest. "I'm the genuine article, honey. Naturally so, and not cobbled together with stolen technology from a second rate mad-doctor. Come at me, silly fool."

The Chameleon swooshed by Rouge and disarmed her. He took possession of her axe and hidden taser gun. He turned to face the bat lady who hadn't even gotten a chance to blink. "Now let's see who's superio-" No sooner had he turned, that he was stabbed through the chest with a long thin projectile. He looked up and saw Rouge's red webbed wings spread out; he looked down and saw her long tail stabbed clear through his heart. "Wh-what, th-the hell are you-" he said as he was lifted off the ground and thrown into the roughage on the roadside. He hit the ground hard but still had some energy to bring himself to all fours. He looked up witnessed Rouge's four foot long, bladed and barbed tail. The blood poured from his chest onto a hand that had no hope of stopping it. The hooked end tore much more on the way out than it did on the way through him.

"If you don't die, don't come near me or any of the lovely members of this community again. If you do, I'll flay you in every which way I can. Do you understand me, dear," Rouge said as sweetly as possible, but the rage she felt inside gave it a maniacal edge.

The Chameleon heard what she said and fell unconscious in the dirt.

Rouge reclaimed her items and put them back on her belt. "...and you swear he won't die?"

'Yes, he'll be fine-but, Rouge, you're aware he was ready to murder you, no hesitation...yet you still want him to live?"

Rouge placed her fists on her hips, "Oh course, darling. He's being mind controlled; he's not choosing to be like this."

'Are you sure? Maybe he knew he was too weak to do anything before.'

"Cut that out. We all have angry thoughts and feelings from time to time, it's not like we act on them though. Lots of us are afraid of dying alone, and maybe he thought this was his last chance at revenge after all that happened," Rouge said and looked over at the body slumped on the ground. The bleeding had stopped and he still drew a breath. "I wonder if that's what he thought was going to happen right here and now...poor thing."

'...you're too kind for your own good sometimes.'

"Thank you," Rouge concealed her tail again and carried on to the Froglodyte village.

Sticks and BG made it back long before Rouge. "You were in North City? How'd you guys get back here so fast?"

Sticks pointed at the home they needed to go to. "An old friend called us up and said someone washed up on their beach. Sonic ran us here and made a u-turn to be with Amy for a bit longer."

When they entered, Jules sat with her cousin. Xaun was nearly motionless and and expressionless, save for the rope he weaved in his hands. "Xaun?" Jules said quietly beside him and he didn't respond to her. "Come on, please, tell me this is an act," Julie-Su's tearful voice began to break down.

Og, long time Froglodyte friend, spoke to them. "We found him washed up on the shore this morning. He recovered quickly, but he hasn't said a word. Still good with his hands though; he might make a full recovery yet."

Julie-Su sat directly in front of him on the floor and guided his vision to look at her. "Do you recognise me?"

He nodded 'yes', slowly.

Julie-Su couldn't see him in there at all. She let his face go and he went back to weaving. "I don't know how I'm going to explain this to Re'Kar…"

Xaun stood up suddenly and left the 'fro'ut', the Froglodyte word for 'hut'.

"W-wait!" Jules reached out to him.

Xaun passed by Rouge on the way out.

"Something wrong," she asked as Julie-Su began crying into her arms. Rouge hugged her, "Darling, what's wrong?"

"He's not in there anymore," she sobbed. "He'd been damaged by the flood. I don't know what…" she couldn't contain her cries.

"What do you mean?" Rouge looked over to what Xaun had done with the rope he held. "Are you sure?"

Jules saw that Xaun used the small rope he'd made to fix a door hinge so it stopped banging. "What...how-?"

Og spoke up again, "I've heard of this condition before, it's called: Locked in. He's not able to talk or communicate effectively, but his mind is still in there. Some people who end up with that condition are confined to a bed for the rest of their lives. I'd say he's a lucky case."

"So, like, hold on...the connection between body and brain are damaged, but the brain isn't damaged," BG said with uncertainty.

"That's a good way to put it," Og said. "If you'd like, I can put him up here until he recovers. We have a simple life and we're protected from major floods here in the caldera." The Froglodyte moved from their cave due to the tsunami. The old cauldera was completely inactive as a volcano and offered protection against rising waters.

Julie-Su watched Xaun examine another run down hut. It looked like he started to learn it's construction secrets. "Tell me...is there any alcohol here?"

Og shook his head, "Sorry, miss, we don't have such things here. It's pure poison to our bodies."

"No, no...that's good," Jules smiled.

Og nodded and bowed with his hands pressed together. "Mind if I ask you your name, man, uh, lady...er."

"Julie-Su. Jules, for short."

He smiled, "Cool, J, because I think your cuz should stay, eh. What do you say?"

Jules smiled, "I think big North City would be a bad option for him; he wanted the simple country life anyway...plus, it looks like he's already found a project."

Xaun helped remove rotten bits of wood from a doorway and used hand motions to communicate to the villagers on what he needed to fix it.

Rouge spoke up, "Shadow's brother knows sign language. Maybe that could be an option when things settle down around here."

Julie-Su composed herself. "Right."

BG looked a bit stressed. "Could I try to ask him what happened to Staci, before we go, please?"

Jules nodded, "I don't know if he can give you an answer, but it's worth trying."

BG got close to Xaun and put a hand on each shoulder. "Was Staci with you when the water came?"

He nodded.

BG hesitated, "Do you know what happened to her?"

Xaun's eyes started to well up with tears. He slowly shook his head. He turned and went back to repairing the structure.

BG, emotionless, turned and went back to the other. "That was devastating. Probably should have done that to myself. Let's go. Gotta keep looking. Good ol' distraction." She had no more tears to cry.

Back at the camp, an unwelcome face appeared with his hovering platform from the sky. He felt around the hivemind for his followers. "...hmmm, good, good. Exactly as planned. I only lost a few." Eggman pressed a button on his console. A signal was sent out to those who chose his path with the nano-machines, courtesy of the Black Arm. Each villager stopped what they were doing and lined up in rank order. The weakest of the lot made up the front rows and got progressively stronger towards the back. Each row had seven people, and there were four rows.

One person was absent from the final line. The doctor looked down at his soldiers. "That's unsatisfying. Where's the Bunny Girl at? She was the angriest of the bunch. Oh no, did that fox find a way to separate out the extras?! Dammit!" He flew to the back of the lines and spoke to the strongest first. "Alright, here's what's gonna happen, gather closer."

The lines took two synchronised steps towards the doctor and listened to his plan of how to overthrow the village and to take it all for themselves.

Everyone listened in and nodded along.

"Sound good?" he said and got a salute from all his puppets. "Excellent. We'll use their democracy against them. Hehe," he said and flew off. When he was out of sight, he released the hold on the villagers.

The people gave each other knowing glances and carried on as if nothing had happened.

"This whole island is going to be mine, whether you like it or not."

At the end of the day, on a distant beach, another villager washed up on shore. Light purple fur was obscured by seaweed. A blue, metal hand reached down and grabbed around the wrist. He dragged her semi-lifeless body away.

There...I'm...happy with this...maybe x.x