Author's Note

Two things that might be important to know before the story begins:

-The Rogues will have a backstory closer to the one they have in pre-SGW Archie.

-After the first chapter or so, the Rogue plot will (mostly) take a backseat. The focus of the story is more on the stories that take place in each chapter with Amy and Rouge. It's not plotless, but the plot isn't the main focus.

It's hard not to adore Rouge and Amy when their personalities are so fun both on their own and when together. I know Rougamy isn't the most popular ship and very few people will see this fic because of it, but I hope the people who see it enjoy it at least a little.

"Get back here!"

Amy scrambled down the bustling street. Her hands grew sweaty under the silky material of her gloves from the tight grip she had on the handle of her hammer. A mixture of unadulterated rage and exertion from all the effort that it took to maneuver herself in a way that kept her from running into other people while keeping her speed built up a heat inside her that threatened to scorch her body from the inside out.

Most onlookers pressed themselves against the fronts of the businesses lining the street to stay out of the way of the race unfolding in front of them. Others stood in her way, unaware of what was going on.

She kept her eyes trained on the streaks of purple, green, and yellow that cut through the air. They were all heading in the direction of the giant airship that blocked the sun shining down on the city where her muggers would make their cowardly escape.

Amy smashed her hammer down on the concrete. The force cracked the sidewalk and sent her into the air and flipping over a crowd of people. Her landing gave her enough speed to run next to the obnoxious green hawk that was perched on top of an Extreme Gear board, too much of a coward to come down here and deal with her himself.

"Hey, you're still here? I thought it was the other hedgehog who was quick on his feet. You're not too bad," said hawk commented with a sneer. The back of his board glowed with a vibrant green. "Too bad you won't be able to keep up much longer. It's been fun though."

"Shut up!" Amy lowered her hammer to her side, eyes focused on the center of the board. "I'm giving you one more chance; give me back my locket or I'll take it back!"

Jet smothered a laugh with his hand, the gesture rendered useless by how loud it came out. "What's some little girl with a toy hammer gonna do to me?"

Amy forced her lips into a tight smile. "Nothing to you. Just… this!"

Her hammer smashed into the bottom of the board, snapping it in half right under Jet's feet. The smug look on his face fell and he squawked. Amy dropped her hammer to reach for the bag of stolen goods in Jet's hand, her fingers brushing the burlap.

"I've got you, boss!"

The bag was stolen from her reach as Jet and the bag were scooped up by Storm and slung over his shoulder. Wave slowed her board to come side by side with them, glaring at Jet.

"Now look what's happened! Gear doesn't just grow on trees, Jet," she said with a groan. "If you're done showing off, let's get out of here— agh!"

Amy jumped and grabbed onto the back of Wave's board, the tips of her boots scraping against the pavement as she hung off of it. She started pulling herself up, which proved to be difficult with the speed of the board working against her.

"I'm… Not… Letting you get away with this!"

Wave chuckled. "You're doing your best, I'll give you that. Breaking the Gear I made is unforgivable though."

"Storm, handle the brat!" Jet shouted, his feathers puffed up.

"On it, boss!"

Amy looked up at Storm. Her blood ran cold as he wound his arm back, hand clenched in a fist with his eyes right on her.

A spinning blur of black and purple collided with Storm's back and knocked him off balance, forcing a shout from both him and Jet. Before his board could overturn, he grabbed the side of Wave's board. Wave stumbled and one of Amy's hands fell from its grip on the board from the sudden shift in balance.

Amy looked up at where the blur had landed on Storm's back as if it were some kind of beacon of hope. She felt somewhat conflicted when she saw Rouge, standing on top of Storm's horizontal form with just as much rage as Amy written all over her.

"I'm surprised a trio of ruffians like yourselves have such good taste," Rouge said, walking to where Jet was putting all his energy into keeping his hold on Storm and the bag. "But no one, no one, steals from me. I'll be taking that little gem back now." She reached for the bag.

Jet sacrificed part of his hold to yank it out of her reach. "You'll have to pry it out of my cold, dead hands! You two, pull yourselves together."

"Worry about yourself," Wave said, grabbing Storm's hands and tossing him back to help him regain his balance and knock Rouge off of him.

Rouge went spiraling back with a shout. Her fall was stopped by Amy grabbing her wrist.

She sucked in a shaky breath and smirked at Amy despite her frazzled state. "I didn't see you there. Giving them trouble, are you?"

Amy gave her a wobbly smile in return. "I'm trying…"

"Not for long!" Wave yelled at them. "Storm! Time to go."

The Gear heated up under Amy's hand. She tore her eyes away from Rouge to look at it, watching it glow just as Jet's had, only this one was a deep shade of pink.

A streak of pink shot out, knocking Amy off the Gear altogether. Her and Rouge dropped down to the rough concrete, tumbling down a shallow incline with a series of grunts and yelps until their bodies stopped in the middle of the road. Amy sprang to her feet, ready to give chase only to find nothing.

Her gaze followed the twin streams of pink and yellow to the sky where they swirled together in the direction of the airship. She gritted her teeth, her anger beginning to overflow inside of her. Rouge stood next to Amy, brushing herself off as she watched the trio cut through the sky.

"I wonder if it's hard to breathe with how high up their pedestal is."

"I don't care." Amy looked back in the direction of her discarded hammer. "I'm going to knock them off it."

"Oh? I never took you to be the gutsy type. What a pleasant surprise." Rouge crossed her arms. "Luckily for you, I can fly us up there with no problem."

Amy was broken out of her rage fueled state by confusion. "You want to come too?"

"Did you not hear me?" Rouge narrowed her eyes up at the Rogues as their Gears' colored streams disappeared into the airship. "No one steals from me, especially not after all the work I went through to get that little gem they snatched. I'll bring down that whole fancy ship if I have to." She turned her gaze on Amy. "Do you have a problem with that?"

Wow, Rouge could be scary…

"No! The more the merrier! It's just…" Amy rubbed the back of her neck with a sheepish smile, feeling Rouge's gaze weighing heavily on her. "I never expected us to work together."

Rouge raised an eye ridge. "We've worked together plenty of times, why, the day we first met ended in us working together."

"I meant just you and me. I don't think I've ever really seen you in action before." She fiddled with her fingers, keeping her eyes averted from Rouge.

Rouge paused, looking lost in thought as she stared at Amy. A smirk spread on her face. "Now that I think of it, I haven't seen much out of you either. That means I can only hope that this doesn't go up in flames," Rouge said, continuing without acknowledging Amy's ticked off expression. Rouge held out her hand for her. "Who knows though? Maybe you'll surprise me. Now are we going to keep chatting or are we going to go poach some birds?"

Something about her words seemed strange to Amy, but she brushed them off for the time being. Right now, she needed to get that locket back.

Amy took her hand. "Yeah. No more waiting."

Her feet were dangling in the air in a split-second. Rouge flew up the road, giving Amy the chance to snag her abandoned hammer before they ascended into the sky.

Rouge used her free hand to point to the end of the ship. "I saw them enter from the back. We're starting there."

"Got it!"

They soared through the air, rapidly advancing towards the airship. Though she was nowhere near as fast as Sonic or Shadow, even the Rogue's Extreme Gear, Amy was blown away at just how quick Rouge could fly while carrying her. She assumed that speed and strength was something she gained in both her job at GUN and in her time of treasure hunting.

They rose to the same altitude as the large metal turbine engines on the sides of the airship. Rouge went to bring them in closer, only to stop with a shout as a blur of grey shot past her. Another flew at her. Rouge swerved to avoid it. Two oncoming disc-shaped projectiles flew at Amy. She smacked one away with her hammer, watching it spin out of control away from them before colliding with the second and exploding.

"They're like floating mines," Rouge said through gritted teeth as she maneuvered her and Amy out of the way of another wave of projectiles. "We can't get in there if those things keep coming!"

Amy looked at the ship, her eyes squinted as she searched the area, looking for where the projectiles were coming from. The glint of light from the sun revealed a line of turrets with thin nozzles right under the turbine engine as they sent out another line of discs, one by one. She lit up.

Amy craned her neck to look up at Rouge. "Toss me up."

"Are you insane?" Rouge hissed.

"Just trust me!"

Rouge glanced at the projectiles then at Amy and rolled her eyes. "I'm not responsible for whatever happens to you. Understand?"

The world blurred around Amy as Rouge swung her back and forth. She was tossed into the air with just enough height to position herself to land on one of the strange discs. The speed and her lack of balanced threatened to throw her off as she leaped from disc to disc, repeating until she reached the second to last. She raised her hammer and hit the side of the last projectile, spinning it into the line of turrets where it sliced through each one.

A rumble under her feet warned her the one she was standing on was about to blow. Taking a deep breath, she hopped off of it, closing her eyes tight as she fell through the air. As if on cue, a pair of hands grabbed her wrist. Amy sighed in relief. She pried her eyes back open to look around at the destroyed defenses on the airship.

"Hm. That wasn't too bad," Rouge said from above, a smirk on her face. Her eyes were fixed on Amy's hammer. "Impressive if I'm being honest – at least in comparison to what I thought would happen."

Amy stiffened up at Rouge's strange tone, doing her best to keep her focus on any stray projectiles. "Uh, thank you?"

"So polite. Do you want to throw a ma'am on there too?" Rouge chuckled. "Looks like we're out of danger for the time being. Time to make those birds squawk."

Amy grinned up at her. "Let's go!"

The metal double doors shook, a dent forming in the middle. They shook again, the dent grew larger. One more rattle and the dent became a hole filled by the yellow end of Amy's hammer. She wiggled it around until the hammer fell onto the cold metal floor with a clunk that rang through the room.

Next was herself. Awkwardly, she slid herself through the hole, careful to avoid cutting herself on the metal or falling backward into the air. She landed without a problem and knelt down to grab her hammer. When she stood back up, all she could do was stare at her surroundings.

"W-whoa…"

The floor, wall, and ceiling were all nothing more than sheets of metal. The room itself looked to be used as both an artillery room and a hangar.

From here, she could see the insides of the turrets she destroyed. They were filled with more of those strange projectiles, though they were now unable to fire them. More discs were stacked below the turrets and a few stray discs laid to the side, partially dissembled. She assumed those must've been duds.

Near the metal doors she entered through, there was a long work bench with multiple Extreme Gear boards littering the top. Some looked like they were complete, others appeared to be nothing more than a mess of wires. There were three hooks on the wall, one colored green, another purple, and the last being silver, all of which were devoid of any Gear. Where all the spare Gear boards were hung, one was missing from there as well.

Rouge flew through the hole, twirling in the air then landing next to Amy. "If all it takes to stun you is a couple of bombs and some Gear, then you need to see what GUN has. Still… All this and they couldn't get us off their tail. I almost pity them."

Rouge led her to the single door at the other end of the room. Both women used all of their body weight to push open the metal door. On the other side, a long red carpet beckoned them down a hall with five doors. Amy glanced at each one to see none of them had markings of any kind that would tell her what was inside.

"Which one do you think they're in?"

"There's only one way to find out." Rouge took off the metal heart at the edge of her shoe, shoving the thin metal in the crack where the door met the steel trim at an angle before stepping away and gesturing to it. "Would you be a dear and give this a quick whack?"

Any wound her hammer back, looking back and forth at it and the shoe-attachment with uncertainty. "Um, are you sure it won't break?"

Rouge chuckled. "You really haven't see me in action. That thing has survived much worse abuse. Give it all you've got."

"If you say so…"

Amy slammed her hammer onto the shoe part. To her astonishment, the door swung open and the slab of metal fell to the ground without as much as a dent. Rouge picked it up, wiping it off then securing it to the edge of her boots.

"There we go," Rouge murmured with a satisfied hum as she examined her shoe. She stood up straight and strolled into the dark room with her hand trailing against the wall. "Well, they definitely aren't in here."

Amy shook herself out of her daze and walked in. She carefully poked around the room, sliding her feet across the floor as to not step on anything. The tip of her boot hit something solid, startling her. She fell to the ground with a yelp.

A click sounded and the lights flickered on to reveal the object in front of her… or rather objects.

"What in the world," Rouge said in awe as she came closer to the pile in front of Amy. She took one of the items and held in up to the light. "Lockets and gems?"

Amy sat up, taking out one of the lockets from the pile. Her fingers traced over the ornate gold engravings. "T-this most cost a fortune! Mine is nowhere near as fancy as this."

Rouge lowered the gem to look at Amy with a raised eye ridge. "They stole your locket?"

"Mhm." Amy rolled the locket around in her hand, the back showing a golden flame etched into purple porcelain. It reminded her of someone… "They snatched it out of my hands while I was walking."

Rouge huffed out a laugh. "You got lucky then. They completely trashed the club. Even with all that treasure I had stashed in there, they only took that gem."

Amy narrowed her eyes at the locket. "I wonder why…"

Rouge shrugged. "We won't get any answers if we don't get a move on. We'll look through this later." Rouge brushed past Amy on her way out of the room, taking off the edge of her shoe again as she walked, like she had done this countless times. She stopped at the door across the hall and stuck the piece of metal in the crack, turning back to Amy with a grin. "You still want to knock them off their pedestal, don't you?"

Amy stood up, brushing her dress off as she did. "Of course."

Rouge leaned against the wall with a small smirk on her lips as she watched Amy ready her hammer. The sound of air rushing into the ship made her hesitate. Amy lowered her hammer and looked around the hallway for the source of the noise.

"What's that?"

Rouge's eyes slipped shut. Her ears twitched as she listened in. When she opened her eyes, she pointed to the door at the end of the hall and grabbed the shoe part with her other hand. "It came from that one."

They hurried to the door, repeating the process from the earlier door. It flew open and hit the wall. Standing on the opposing side of the room, a green bird stood in front of a large opened window with a burlap sack in his hand. Amy's fingers twitched around the handle of her hammer.

Rouge stepped into the room with her hand held out. "Hand it over, bird boy."

Rouge's voice startled him. When he turned back to look at the glaring duo, a smirk formed on his face that made Amy want to bash his beak in so, so, so bad.

"You'll have to catch me first."

Amy and Rouge lunged forward. Amy jumped the desk in between her and Jet while Rouge flew up to the ceiling. She reached for his ankle. Jet shot forward on his spare Gear board and Amy landed face first on the ground instead, followed by Rouge missing Jet and drill diving right into Amy's back. Amy cried out, making Rouge immediately stop her attack and fall backward onto the carpeted floor.

Rouge sighed and offered her a hand to help her up. "My bad."

Amy ignored Rouge and grabbed her hammer and scrambled to her feet, but the window the trio escaped through was already shut tight. She dropped her hammer and tucked her fingers under the glass. She put her everything into attempting to pry it open, her body straining against the weight of the window.

Now she wished she would've hit Jet instead of his Gear.

Rouge rose to her feet, rubbing one of her wings. "Give up. Even if we could follow, we wouldn't be able to keep up. I can't handle much more flying today."

Grunts built up in Amy's throat with every motion she made and faded into a long sigh as she yanked her sore fingers away. "That jerk! I can't stand him!" She stomped her foot on the ground, glaring at the faint figures of the Rogues in the distance as they grew smaller by the second. "To think he called me a brat earlier. If he wanted to see a brat, he should just take a look at himself!"

"With a personality like that, he probably looks at himself quite a bit." Rouge sat on the desk and crossed her legs. "I can't believe they just jumped ship. Literally. Something isn't right."

Rouge was right about that. The Rogues' figures disappeared completely, overtaken by the area where the window met the ceiling of the airship. Amy's squinted eyes grew to the size of saucers as the view in front of her slowly switched from being the light blue sky to the tops of Station Square's highest buildings.

"R-Rouge, I think we're going down!"

Rouge ran to the window, muttering a curse before rushing to the other side of the room. "Help me find the controls – they have to be somewhere in here."

The duo sprinted around the room, moving every piece of furniture, décor, and likely stolen painting in sight. Attempting to move the desk proved to be impossible though. Amy attempted to use her body weight to move it to no avail. She held on tight to the top of it as she gave it another try. The top shifted slightly under her grip.

"The top of the desk is loose."

Amy moved around to the other side of the desk. She shoved the chair back and knelt down in front of the desk to get a better look. A strange contraption held the desk shut. It was rustic, yet more advanced than anything Eggman or Tails have created. She was sure it was a lock, though it was nothing like she had ever seen.

Rouge grabbed the edge of the desk. She attempted to lift the cover. When that didn't work, she lifted her shoe and removed the metal once more. "We have to pry it open." Rouge jammed her shoe part into it, right next to the strange lock. "One more time. Just like earlier."

Rouge stepped back and Amy immediately smacked her hammer into the metal. The top of the desk flew back and Rouge stepped in front of it, obscuring Amy's view of what was there.

"What in the world…" Rouge shook her head. "No, no. I can work with this."

Rouge's fingers flew across the revealed panel. Time after time, a dull buzz sounded and marked all of her inputs as invalid. Then there was a light ding. Amy watched as the buildings of Station Square came closer and closer as the ship's descent sped up. She grabbed the edge of the desk to keep herself steady as all the loose objects of the room rolled around the floor and down the hall.

Rouge slammed her fists down on the board. "Damn! What is this thing?"

Amy looked over Rouge's shoulder at the strange controls that looked more like a keyboard than something that would control an airship. Each key glowed and had strange symbols on it and above the keyboard, there was a small line of them that appeared to be an order typed out in whatever language this was. To Amy's surprise, she had seen the symbols before.

"I think Tails has some stuff with that writing on it," Amy said, ghosting her fingers along the edge of the desk. "He said it's from the… uh… Something… Something… Empire."

"How helpful," Rouge said in a sardonic tone. "Can you read any of it?"

"N-no. I'm sorry."

Rouge continued typing. Her posture was rigid and her movements were frantic with every press of the keyboard. Another ding came from the panel and the ship shifted. Amy checked the window, relieved when she saw they were no longer falling.

"Good…" Rouge's hands gripped either side of the desk as she hung her head. "I think I can keep it at this altitude, but I can't figure out how to land it or slow it down – not without risking our lives."

Another idea popped into Amy's head, though it was just as risky as the one she had when they were attempting to board the ship. She swerved around the desk, making a mad dash for the hallway.

"Oh, so you're bailing to let me deal with this on my own?" The anger on Rouge's face betrayed the calm in her voice. "Typical."

Amy stopped in the doorway and turned back to Rouge. "I'm going to take out one of the engines. It'll start going down slowly if I do that, right?"

The anger on Rouge's face faded into perplexity. "Yeah, that could work. You could also blow yourself up in the process."

Amy looked out the window. She knew down below, the streets of Station Square were filled with terrified people. Even though she was scared…

"If the ship goes down now, all those people will get hurt." She clenched her hands into fists, digging her fingers into her palms to ground herself. "I have to try something."

"So heroic." Rouge smirked. "Now if you can pull this off…"

Amy tilted her head. "Then what?"

Rouge shook her head. "Don't worry about it. Run along and do your thing." She waved Amy away. "We don't have much time. Shoo."

Amy nodded and hurried out of the room. She ran down the hall and into the artillery room, skidding to a stop in front of her first target; the line of turrets. Amy grabbed one of the strange projectiles off of one of the stacks and tucked it under her arm.

Her next stop was the spare Extreme Gear by the workbench. She grabbed one of the few boards that looked somewhat completed and hurried to the metal double doors. She dropped the board to the ground, the jets on the bottom coming to life and making the board hover before it could hit the metal.

She put her foot on it to keep it steady and brought her fist down onto the button next to the double doors and watched them slide open to reveal the terrified streets of people. To her relief, the ship was passing by the train station, meaning they were almost clear of Station Square. All Rouge had to do now was keep the ship flying.

Amy sucked in a shuddering breath and murmured, "You can do this."

She tightened her hold on the projectile and her hammer. With a deep breath, she put her other foot on the Gear and steadied herself before boosting out of the ship.

Amy drifted around the ship, coming side to side with one of the massive turbine engines attached to the side. She boosted again, crouching to keep her balance. Amy untucked the projectile from under her arm as she stared down at the large propeller whirling inside the engine. She held her hammer out to the side.

"I hope this works!"

She took a deep breath and tossed the projectile into the air. Her hammer collided with it and sent it hurtling into the engine.

The resulting explosion blew chunks of metal all around. Amy was able to maneuver her board fast enough to avoid them. What remained of the engine was alight with a roaring fire spitting flames and smoke everywhere. Amy boosted over it. She twisted the board, and despite being out of practice, was able to form a small tornado to put out the fire using the Air from the Gear. Amy backed away from the scorched and busted turbine engine. Pride welled up in her chest at a job well done.

That feeling didn't last for long. The Gear's jets stopped. Her heart did the same. She dropped down with a yelp. The jets roared back to life, the bottom of the board just barely scratching against the train tracks she and the ship were passing over. An irritating beeping sounded from the board, letting her know the Gear was almost out of Air.

"I have to hurry."

Amy stilled her board, letting the ship go ahead of her until it was a straight shot to the double doors in the back of the ship. The board choked out one last boost, getting her close enough to the double doors for her to jump back into the airship with the board left to fall into the ocean below.

An alarm blared throughout the ship, colored lights basking the metal room in a dark red to alert them of the damage to the engine. Amy used her feet to safely scoot her away from the opened double doors.

She took a look outside to see how far the speedy ship had carried them away from Station Square, the Mystic Ruins Station and the rocky terrain that surrounded it coming into view. The side of the airship ground against the high rising rocks in the area, shaking the whole ship and nearly knocking Amy over. She stood up and ran back to the flight deck where Rouge was turned around, looking at the window with one hand on the control panel.

"The engine's out," Amy announced as she took her spot next to Rouge.

"Good. Looks like we're landing in the jungle then." Rouge's eyes narrowed as the Mystic Ruins Temple came into view. "Hold on tight."

The ship hit the ground, knocking both of them off balance. Rouge dropped to the floor while Amy hunched over the desk. The ship rattled and shifted as it dragged through the dirt and broke the trees that couldn't survive the weight of the ship.

Amy's ear piercing scream was silenced by the mess of sounds reverberating throughout the ship from the sound of the tip of the ship digging into the hard earth, the snapping trees, the blaring alarm and every object in the ship falling and rolling all over the place. Rouge grabbed her wrist to drag her to sit down on the floor with her and ride it out. Both women kept their eyes shut and ears covered. Amy pulled her knees to her chest. Rouge gritted her teeth.

Their bodies jerked as the airship came to a sudden stop.

They sat there without a word. Amy sucked in deep breath after deep breath while Rouge massaged her temples. The alarm had silenced and with it, the rest of the ship fell quiet. Everything sat there, unmoving.

Amy was the first to stand. She hobbled over to the window on shaking legs and planted her hands on the cracked glass, relief overcoming her at the sight of the particularly large tree that had stopped the ship.

"Thank goodness…"

"When I said I'd bring down this whole ship, I was just kidding." Rouge used the desk to help her stand. She leaned against it, her hands holding onto the edge for more stability. "I can't believe we pulled that off."

Amy came over to lean against the desk with her. She offered Rouge a smile and raised her hand in an invitation to high-five. "We did pretty good."

"Naturally." Rouge smiled. She accepted Amy's invitation as she pushed off the desk. "Well, we didn't get to pluck any feathers, but we still have some junk we can look at."

"Yeah… I guess so."

The duo abandoned the room and travelled down the hall. Amy rubbed her sore back the whole way, the accidental injury inflicted by Rouge alongside the ache in her legs finally making themselves known as her adrenaline levels returned to normal. To her left, Rouge didn't seem to be doing much better. She was giving her wings a half-hearted massage while stepping over all the décor and furniture that had rolled out from the flight deck.

They came to a stop in front of the treasure room, both relieved to see that only a few gems and lockets had rolled out of the room during the commotion. The pile itself had crumbled, leaving every single item covering the floor. It was spread out enough to where Amy could make out everything that was once in the pile, though it left her with disappointment.

Her locket was nowhere to be found. Nothing even looked similar to it. She understood why they took Rouge's gem with them, it was a gem after all, but why did they take her locket?

Rouge brushed past Amy, her wings gently flapping as they slowly raised her off the ground. She stayed low enough so that she could pick up each item to examine it.

"Locket, gem. Locket, gem. Locket and… oh goodie, another gem." Rouge huffed out a sigh and threw the gem down with the rest. "Most kleptos are a bit more diverse than this. What's so important about your crummy locket and my gem that they'd abandon all of this?"

Amy's vision flashed with red and she brought her hammer down on the floor. "It's not crummy! My friends gave it to me!"

Both of them grew quiet. Rouge stared at her with pure shock on her face while Amy tore her eyes away, fighting off the guilt that came from her outburst. She sighed.

"… I don't know everything that you do about treasure hunting. I have no idea why they would take our stuff and leave all of this behind, but we can't just leave it here."

Rouge relaxed. "I'm way ahead of you; I'll keep it safe and sound."

Amy glared at her. "I meant that we need to give everything back to the people they stole from."

"Oh? And how do you plan on finding out where all of it came from? I thought you didn't know everything I do about treasure hunting."

"Then how about we work together to give it back, and…" Amy rubbed the back of her neck. "If there's anything we can't give back, then I guess letting you keep it safe should be okay."

"I'm glad you could see it my way, however…" Rouge grinned. "My services come with a price, especially if I'm going to be giving away treasure instead of keeping it."

Amy paled. "I-I don't have that much—

"I'm not asking for your wallet, girl. I'm asking for your brawn."

"My… brawn?"

"Treasure hunting can get a bit dangerous, you see; occasionally I need more than just myself to get the job done because of it. You might be a little bit of a hothead, but I think I can make this work. It's simple really." Rouge made a motion with her hands to mimic Amy using her hammer. "I'll call you, you come help me by swinging that big hammer at anything I point you to, then I'll figure out how we can return whatever bit of treasure, if you can call half of this crud that, to whoever got their grubby fingers on it first. An eye for an eye. Or you could try your luck on your own. I bet you could get that little fox to help you – when he's not busy running around with Big Blue, that is."

Amy looked at the pile of treasure. A few of the designs she could vaguely recognize from the places she had followed Sonic to on his adventures, a couple she can somewhat recognize on her own, but nothing more. Some looked to be from outside of this continent, maybe even outside of this dimension.

Not only that, but she needed to get her own locket back on top of returning all of this… There was no way she could juggle hunting down the Rogues with the days' worth of research it could take her to get so much as a lead on a single locket or gem.

She met Rouge's gaze, full of determination. "Okay. I'm in."

Rouge's face lit up with shock. "Really? I thought it would be a bit harder than that. You goodie-goodie types are usually a bit more hesitant to get your hands dirty."

"I've made up my mind. But!" Amy stuck her finger out at her. "Don't think that means I'll just do whatever you want. I'm not going to steal from others and I'm not going to hurt anyone who isn't trying to hurt one of us."

Rouge chuckled. "There it is. So do we have a deal?"

Amy lowered her hand and nodded. "We do."

"Good, good. Now let's find a way to haul of this junk back to my—

"— my apartment," Amy cut in.

Rouge sighed. "Your apartment. We also need to hide this ship somehow."

"I bet I can get Tails to handle that part."

Rouge clapped her hands once as she walked to the door. "Good, that's half the battle."

Amy ran to her side. "Where are you going?"

"I told you; we need to find a way to get all of this out of here." Rouge stopped her by putting a hand on her shoulder. "Just sit here and look pretty for now."

Rouge's hand fell from her shoulder and she disappeared down the hall, leaving Amy in the room with her cheeks burning dangerously hot as she stared at the spot Rouge had just been standing in.

Amy knew this was what she was agreeing to… she just wondered how much time she had left before Rouge drove her insane with all the teasing she was sure to endure.