Where are my reviews? I NEED REVIEWS! Please review or my little sister
will go insane!
Disclaimer: Why do I need to say this again?
Day X, 10:59 PM
Rouge walked into the control center of the ARK, heading for the supercomputer in the middle. Earlier, he had told her to get to the ARK and head for the docking bay as quickly as possible. Once she had gotten up to the colony, she had deliberately taken the longest path possible to get to the control room instead, taking a few hours to see the sights of the giant former research center. But finally, she had made it. She contacted Snively. "Doctor, I've made it to the docking bay." She lied. "What took you so long?!" he yelled. "I got lost." She said simply. He cursed a few times. She ignored the profanity. "Whatever! Rouge, our enemies are almost at the colony! I need you to try and stop them before they can get the Super Emeralds!" "Of course Doctor. What's the password for the colony control?" she asked. "Eh? Why do you need to know that?" asked Snively, confused. "Well, if I try to stop the heroes myself, there's a good chance of my failure if they all team up. But if I can get access to the supercomputer, I can activate the defense systems and put up a better attempt at killing them." she explained. "Hmm, good idea. Glad I thought of it." Said Snively. "The password is GERALD, after Dr. Maria's only son, Gerald Robotnik." "Thanks, I'll get right on stopping the intruders." Said Rouge, cutting off the line between them. She smirked. "Ha! Fooling that crazy midget is just too easy! Now to see what I can find." Rouge went to the big control panel and typed in GERALD, opening the entire colony to her, aside from the damaged systems like security cameras. But all the onboard sensors worked, and those were almost as good. She switched on the security for the important areas of the colony, deploying the reprogrammed GUN robots and Artficial Chaos drones. Once that was done, she began her real work. She activated her hidden comm unit and started speaking as she began sifting through the colony's database. "This is Rouge, reporting. I've gained access to the colony's supercomputer. No, I can't take the Emeralds out yet, that would spoil everything. Besides, Snively will know if I take the Emeralds too early and just kill me and take them back. I will see if I can figure out the truth about Scales, though. Hold on please." Rouge kept going through the large database, finally finding a huge file labelled "PROJECT ULTIMATE." Thinking this was it, Rouge opened the file and started scanning the contents. She was greatly surprised by what she found. She spoke to her superior again. "Th-this is Rouge again, I think I've found what we're looking for. And much more. I'll send the data to you now." She took a small cable from her dimension pocket and connected it to her communicator and the computer. With a few keystrokes, Rouge was able to transmit the large amount of bits on Project Ultimate to the person on the other end of the line. As the upload finally ended, Rouge listened to startled reactions on the other end, and noticed a new window had appeared on the screen. She clicked on it, and saw a map of the colony and the outside area. There were a few scattered areas radiating Chaos energy on the exterior of the colony. They could be nothing else but the other pieces of the Master Emerald. She spoke into the communicator again. "Look, Something just came up. I'll call you back, okay?" Rouge hung up before she could get a response and smirked. "Well, it looks like the other pieces of the Master Emerald have somehow gotten into orbit. I wonder if that echidna will be there too. It will be interesting to see him again. Well, I'd better get out there and get the shards before he does!" She left the control room and quickly got outside the colony. (Don't ask me how she did it so quickly.)
Stage 11: Mad Space. Mission: Find 3 pieces of the Master Emerald.
Rouge was near the bottom of a large area outside the colony, sort of in the asteroid field. She was standing on a metal platform that split into three walkways, each leading to a platform with a rocket on top. There were a LOT of floating platforms all over the area. There were also a few dozen small meteors, three small planetoids, and a huge tower jutting from the surface of the space colony. There were dozens of ledges, floating platforms, walkways and cargo containers surrounding the big tower. Rouge hoped the pieces of the Emerald wouldn't be too hard to find in this enormous place. Rouge thought she should start with the planetoids, but which one to go to first? One was greenish and looked like half a sphere, with crystals and space pods growing from the flat upper half, one was spherical and gray with a huge blue space pod at the top, and the last one looked like a giant capsule made of rock, covered in grass and metallic structures. The three rockets around her looked like they would take her to the planetoids. On a whim, she decided to use the one pointing to the green half-sphere. She ran down the path, climbed up the platform, and grabbed the rocket. She was launched into the air, hurtling upward and dropping from the rocket as she got over the half-sphere. She glided down and started looking around the surface. Aside from a few Hunters, crystals and space pods, there didn't seem to be anything there. Despite there not being anything visible, Rouge's treasure senses were detecting something faintly. Getting an idea, she ran to the edge of the planetoid and jumped off. She turned around and glided into the dome-shaped underside of the planetoid, climbing down it's curved surface. She climbed down (Or is it up?) the surface of the planetoid, getting to the lowest point. Her treasure senses went off. Rouge looked up (or is it down?) and saw the Emerald shard floating beneath the planetoid. Rogue let go of the planetoid's surface and started to fall towards the Emerald. She started to glide and grabbed the piece in midair. She continued her glide across the vast expanse in the middle of the area, eventually reaching the spherical planet. She was suddenly flipped over and tugged, feet-first, to the planetoid. She landed, a bit confused and disoriented, but shook it off and started looking for any pieces. She followed her treasure senses to the bottom of the planet, where there was a large platform with a shard on it! She climbed up the side of the platform and grabbed the Emerald piece. Then she tried to jump from the surface of the planet and glide. She couldn't. She only ended up gliding around the surface of the planetoid. It's gravity was too strong for her to escape from. Thinking there might be something helpful in the big blue capsule, Rouge glided over to the pod at the top of the planetoid and climbed up it. She found a rocket pointing right at the capsule-shaped planetoid. She grabbed the rocket and was launched forward, letting go and gliding the rest of the way to the capsule. She landed, pulled in by its gravity, and started wandering around, looking for an Emerald shard. Her treasure senses went off as she approached one of the ends of the capsule. Struggling to climb over the numerous metal structures, Rouge made it to one of the metal "caps" at either end of the planetoid. She was quite pleased to find both a spring to escape the planetoid's gravity and the last Emerald shard. She picked it up, ending the level.
(STAGE CLEAR. RANK A.)
Rouge's treasure senses picked up faint readings from deeper in the asteroid field. She bounced off the spring, escaping the capsule's gravity, and started gliding away, heading out of the area and through the large asteroid field. After a few minutes, she reached another section of the exterior areas, a big platform carved on top of a giant meteor. There were several structures around a large unfinished building, a tower of girders. Rouge glided to the building, stopping on a girder to recalibrate her senses. She was surprised to find the treasure getting closer and closer! She heard gliding and a thump at the other end of the girder as her senses told her the other Emerald pieces were there. She turned around and saw the red echidna from before. A smile came onto her face. "Well, it's been a while since we've last seen each other, isn't it." she paused. "What was your name again?" "Knuckles. I haven't forgotten your name, Rouge." Said the echidna. Rouge frowned. "Hey, you never told me your name! How can I be expected to remember something I didn't know?" Knuckles thought a moment. "Good point. I see you haven't forgotten about the Master Emerald." He said, pointing to her, sensing the energy from the missing Master Emerald shards. "Neither have you. So, are you going to hand the missing pieces over?" Rouge asked. Knuckles snorted. "No way! You hand the missing pieces over!"
"No, you!" "You!" "You!" "You!" "You!" "You!" "Stop!" yelled Rouge. "This isn't getting us anywhere. How about this, we fight each other for the Master Emerald. Whoever beats the other gets the six shards he or she is holding. Sound fair?" Knuckles nodded. "As long as you don't cheat." Rouge grinned, her two vampiric fangs showing. "I may be a thief, but I do have honor! I don't plan on cheating." "Then let's do this." Said Knuckles, tilting his head to the side, indicating they jump down to the floor of the building. "Let's." agreed Rouge. They jumped off the girder and landed in the center of the tower of girders, facing each other in a battle stance.
KNUCKLES
Knuckles and Rouge ran at each other. Knuckles tried to nail her with a punch, but she ducked and hit him in the chest with a kick that sent him reeling. As she ran towards him, Knuckles held his fists out, planning to ram them into her head as she tried to kick him. She jumped over him and came downward in a drill drive, hurting him more than the kick! As Knuckles tried to get up, Rouge kicked him, sending him rolling across the floor. She came towards him again. Knuckles grunted and got up. As Rouge tried to give him another kick, he ducked around the swing and grabbed her leg. As she started to unbalance, startled, Knuckles threw her over his shoulder, sending her into a girder. She winced and got up. He ran towards her, fists ready. Rouge turned around and started climbing up the side of the girder. Knuckles grabbed on to the girder and started climbing after her. When she noticed he was only a few feet underneath her, she smiled and let go. She immediately went into a drill drive, knocking Knuckles off of the girder and sending him smashing to the ground. As he moaned and started to get up, Rouge shot down from above in another drill drive, her own spiked knuckles driving into the echidna's stomach. He groaned and punched upwards, hitting her in the face. She gasped and flipped off of him. Knuckles quickly got up and hit her from behind, sending her several feet back. He came racing towards her. Rouge glared and got ready. When he swung his fists, Rouge swung a leg. The punch and kick connected with each other, deflecting with enough force to send both fighters several yards away from each other. As they started charging for each other again, the ground suddenly opened up, revealing a shaft going straight into the molten core of the giant meteor. As the echidna and bat started to fall, the antigravity generators running up half the tower's height switched on, sending both of them reeling into the air. As Rouge floundered, trying to "swim" to a girder, Knuckles flipped over to a girder, as he was closer to the edge when the floor had opened up. He climbed a little way up the girder and launched off, gliding above Rouge, who was almost to one of the horizontal girders. He spun into a drill drive, hitting her while she was vulnerable. She cried out and kicked him off of her, sending him into the antigravity field. She pulled herself onto the girder, ran along its length, and climbed up a vertical girder. As Knuckles started to get close to one of the horizontal girders, she jumped off the girder and started to glide over to him. As she positioned herself right above him, Knuckles realized what she was doing and tried to get to the girder as fast as possible. Just as she started her drill drive, the floor closed up again and the antigravity cut off. Knuckles had not yet reached the girder and started to fall. This was made worse when Rouge slammed into him from above with the Drill Drive, sending him to the ground faster than before and inflicting constant damage while doing so. He hit the ground hard, hurting more than before due to the impact from Rouge's claws and the hard metal floor. But if Knuckles was one thing, it's resilient, and he punched Rouge off of him and got up. She raced towards him, starting to make a kick. Knuckles ducked beneath the swing and shot up around the leg, hitting her with a spiral uppercut. She fell away, hurt. She felt her jaw; assuring herself it wasn't broken. Knuckles took advantage of her momentary pause and punched her in the gut. He followed this up with an uppercut and a three-hit combo. She staggered back, obviously hurting. Knuckles ran towards her again. Rouge suddenly dropped to the ground and sweeped out with her legs, knocking Knuckles off his feet. She got up and kicked him in the sides, sending him rolling over the floor. He got up before she could come over. She smirked at him as he winced, clutching his ribs. "That'll teach you not to hurt a lady!" she said proudly. "What kind of lady goes around stealing jewels, anyway?" Knuckle asked angrily. "I'll have you know that it has been a tradition in my family for generations! The eldest daughter always becomes a jewel thief, inheriting the treasure senses of her mother and skill at heists!" Rouge responded indignantly. Knuckles blinked. "Really? The same thing sort of works in my family. The first boy of his generation inherits his dad's treasure sense and job as Guardian of the Master Emerald." Rouge couldn't help smiling again. "So you could say we have a lot in common, don't we?" "You just keep thinking that, bat girl!" Knuckles said, running towards her. As she charged at him, the floor opened once more. "Oh, crap!" "Not agaaaaaaaaiiiiiiinnnnnnnnn!" yelled Rouge as the antigravity sent them shooting upwards. They both swam through the air, pulling themselves up on the same girder. "I've had enough of this! Power Flash!" shouted Knuckles. There was a flash of bright light, and Rouge screamed, clutching her eyes in pain, temporarily blinded. Knuckles took advantage of this and ran forward, unleashing multiple punches on the bat while she couldn't see. As he was about to land a crippling blow to her chin, Rouge's sight recovered and she delivered a tremendous kick to the spot between his legs. Knuckles' mouth fell open, his eyes bulging. He fell to the ground, wheezing. Rouge delivered about a dozen crushing kicks to the fallen echidna, knocking him off of the girder just as the floor started to close. She jumped off the girder after him as the antigravity turned off, smashing into him with a Drill Drive and sending both of them crashing to the ground. Knuckles knocked her off. Before Rouge could put up a defense, Knuckles let loose a flurry of punches, each hitting and causing a lot of pain for her. She flipped away, holding her stomach. Rouge was getting really angry at this point. "You think you're so tough? Then take this! Nightmare Shock!" Knuckles was suddenly paralyzed in fear as every nightmare, fear or misgiving he ever had raced from his subconscious, forcing him to relive every moment of terror or discomfort he had ever experienced. He screamed and clutched his head. Rouge ran up to him and hit him with kick after kick, not stopping even when he had recovered from her attack. Knuckles grabbed her foot and threw her over his shoulder as he had before. Rouge got into a stance. Knuckles spun around and did the same. They both let out a punch and kick at the same time, connecting with each other's jaw. The force from the blow to either of them caused them to stagger back, panting. Rouge could vaguely feel that her entire body was hurting. She tuned out the pain, focusing on her desire. She couldn't believe that Knuckles had withstood all of her attacks. Every enemy that she had ever fought before had never come this close to beating her. He had the same strength as she did. He was truly a worthy match. And Rouge couldn't help noticing for the first time how handsome he was, even tired and bloody as he was now. She snapped out of this moment of observation. What was she thinking? She had to get the pieces of the Master Emerald from him! She turned around and ran for the nearest girder. Knuckles did the same thing. Both grabbed onto the girders and started climbing, higher and higher, until they were at the top level of the building. As they reached the top, the floor opened again. They were too high to be affected, but it added an interesting effect to the scene. The two treasure hunters slowly ran around the top girders, meeting each other on the single girder over the middle of the building. They stopped, facing each other. Both were exhausted, feeling like they couldn't take another step without collapsing. Knuckles spoke up. "I have a proposition." he managed to say. "What?" asked Rouge. "We're both severely weakened. One more attack should finish at least one of us off. So I propose we end this battle with one final attack, each of us using our strongest technique. Whoever is left standing wins custody of the Emerald. Sound good?" he asked. She nodded breathlessly. "Yeah, sounds good." "Then let's do this." He raised his arms, gathering what little strength he had left. A ball of yellow electricity gathered above him, crackling and growing in size. Rouge put one foot behind her and twisted her waist, holding her hands cupped and at her hip level. A mass of darkness began to collect in her palms. Knuckles finished charging the attack, the ball of electricity the size of his head. "Thunder Arrow!" The ball shot a bolt of yellow energy with an arrowhead at Rouge. Rouge finished charging the attack, the dark mass filling her cupped hands completely. She swung her waist to face the front, flinging her cupped hands outward. "Black Wave!" The mass shot at Knuckles in the form of a ring of darkness. The two attacks hit their intended victims at the same time. The two hunters screamed in pain and fell over, unconscious.
Rouge groaned and got up, ever part of her body hurting. She winced, trying not to scream, and saw Knuckles was still unconscious. Staggering to her feet, she went over and filched the bag containing the six pother shards of the Master Emerald from his dimensional pocket, emptying them into her own bag. She threw the bag over the edge of the girder and started to walk away. As she was about to jump off the building and glide away, she stopped. Something in her didn't want to leave Knuckles like this. Why did she feel this way? He had put up an exceptionally good match, that's true, but why did she feel like she didn't want to leave him? Could she actually be falling for this strange echidna? Sighing, she turned around and walked back to the girder bridge, waiting for Knuckles to get up. A few minutes later, he did. He blinked a few times, then seemed to sag. He hadn't seen her yet. "Why so glum?" she asked. Knuckles looked up in surprise. "It was a good fight, you almost won. Why are you so sad about losing?" Knuckles shook his head "It-it's nothing. Go. You have all twelve pieces. Take them and leave. You've proven yourself to be a far worthier guardian of the Master Emerald then I ever could be. Just." He looked up. "Just take better care of it than I did, okay?" Rouge looked at him confused. "I don't understand. What are you going on about? It's just another jewel, albeit the biggest one on the planet. Why are you so depressed about not getting your rock back?" Knuckles stared at Rouge, looking surprised. "You mean you don't know?" "Know what?" "Why the Master Emerald is so important to me, to my race?" "No, I just know it's the largest gemstone in the world and has some weird powers." Knuckles shook his head, dismayed. "I don't believe it. You really don't know." "Know what?" asked Rouge, getting a little frustrated. Knuckles looked her straight in the eye. "The Master Emerald has been protected by the Echidna clan of the Crescent for thousands of years, ever since it was brought into being by the deity Chaos. After a rival clan of echidna tried to take the Master, Super and Chaos Emeralds from the clan by force, resulting in the deaths of many Chao and an enraged god of destruction, the princess of that clan, Tikal, had to seal herself and Chaos into the Master Emerald to protect everyone from the rampaging deity. Because of the deaths Chaos had caused due to the invasion by the rival clan, my ancestors used the power of the Master Emerald to raise their land into the clouds, dubbing it Angel Island. The Chaos Emeralds were scattered around the globe as they flew around the world, ensuring they would be protected from evil. To keep the Master Emerald from being taken by those wishing to covet its power, a Guardian was appointed to protect the Emerald for all his days. This tradition has carried on into modern times, leaving me in charge of guarding the Master Emerald after my father's death. Without the Emerald, the island can no longer fly and falls to the ground, usually in the ocean, and becomes a normal island. That would be fine, were it not for the tradition." He sighed. "But it seems that with my failure to take back the shards from you, I have broken that tradition. Angel Island will remain earthbound forevermore. Take the Emerald. Do with it what you will." Rouge looked at Knuckles for a moment, trying to sort some things through. Finally, she made a decision. She pulled the bag she had been using to contain the Emerald pieces and dumped its contents out at Knuckles' feet. He looked at the pieces then at Rouge, amazed. "Why-" "Because I don't want to ruin anyone's life or way of life. The Emerald belongs to your race, Knuckles. I have plenty of other jewels, anyway." She gestured at the pieces. "Go on. You said you could fix the thing. Do it." Still amazed that she had actually given up her prize, Knuckles gathered the pieces together and started assembling them, forming the massive jewel in seconds. It glowed brightly, complete at last. Knuckles put his hand on the Master Emerald and it shrunk to the size of a Super Emerald. He placed it in his dimension pocket. He looked at Rouge, extremely grateful. "Thank you. You have no idea how much this means to me." He paused, scratching the back of his head. "I'm, uh, sorry if I hurt you. Is there any way I can make up for the brutality I showed in the fight?" Rouge took a step forward, her emotions coming to the surface and taking control of her body. "There is one way." She said mysteriously. "Oh? Wha-" Rouge grabbed him and pulled him close, giving him a passionate kiss on the lips. Knuckles found himself unable to break away, nor really wanting to do so. So he enjoyed it, returning the kiss. Rouge fully enjoyed every second of this. After a full minute, Rouge broke away from him and pressed a piece of paper into his hand. She whispered, "See you later." Into his ear, kissed him on the cheek, and headed off, gliding away. Knuckles stood there for another minute, stunned by what had just happened. When he finally came to his senses, he looked at the piece of paper. It had her phone number written on it.
And that is the end of another chapter. Only two more to go until the Last Story begins! I hope you liked this final battle from Rouge's perspective. See you all next time! And please review!
Day X, 10:59 PM
Rouge walked into the control center of the ARK, heading for the supercomputer in the middle. Earlier, he had told her to get to the ARK and head for the docking bay as quickly as possible. Once she had gotten up to the colony, she had deliberately taken the longest path possible to get to the control room instead, taking a few hours to see the sights of the giant former research center. But finally, she had made it. She contacted Snively. "Doctor, I've made it to the docking bay." She lied. "What took you so long?!" he yelled. "I got lost." She said simply. He cursed a few times. She ignored the profanity. "Whatever! Rouge, our enemies are almost at the colony! I need you to try and stop them before they can get the Super Emeralds!" "Of course Doctor. What's the password for the colony control?" she asked. "Eh? Why do you need to know that?" asked Snively, confused. "Well, if I try to stop the heroes myself, there's a good chance of my failure if they all team up. But if I can get access to the supercomputer, I can activate the defense systems and put up a better attempt at killing them." she explained. "Hmm, good idea. Glad I thought of it." Said Snively. "The password is GERALD, after Dr. Maria's only son, Gerald Robotnik." "Thanks, I'll get right on stopping the intruders." Said Rouge, cutting off the line between them. She smirked. "Ha! Fooling that crazy midget is just too easy! Now to see what I can find." Rouge went to the big control panel and typed in GERALD, opening the entire colony to her, aside from the damaged systems like security cameras. But all the onboard sensors worked, and those were almost as good. She switched on the security for the important areas of the colony, deploying the reprogrammed GUN robots and Artficial Chaos drones. Once that was done, she began her real work. She activated her hidden comm unit and started speaking as she began sifting through the colony's database. "This is Rouge, reporting. I've gained access to the colony's supercomputer. No, I can't take the Emeralds out yet, that would spoil everything. Besides, Snively will know if I take the Emeralds too early and just kill me and take them back. I will see if I can figure out the truth about Scales, though. Hold on please." Rouge kept going through the large database, finally finding a huge file labelled "PROJECT ULTIMATE." Thinking this was it, Rouge opened the file and started scanning the contents. She was greatly surprised by what she found. She spoke to her superior again. "Th-this is Rouge again, I think I've found what we're looking for. And much more. I'll send the data to you now." She took a small cable from her dimension pocket and connected it to her communicator and the computer. With a few keystrokes, Rouge was able to transmit the large amount of bits on Project Ultimate to the person on the other end of the line. As the upload finally ended, Rouge listened to startled reactions on the other end, and noticed a new window had appeared on the screen. She clicked on it, and saw a map of the colony and the outside area. There were a few scattered areas radiating Chaos energy on the exterior of the colony. They could be nothing else but the other pieces of the Master Emerald. She spoke into the communicator again. "Look, Something just came up. I'll call you back, okay?" Rouge hung up before she could get a response and smirked. "Well, it looks like the other pieces of the Master Emerald have somehow gotten into orbit. I wonder if that echidna will be there too. It will be interesting to see him again. Well, I'd better get out there and get the shards before he does!" She left the control room and quickly got outside the colony. (Don't ask me how she did it so quickly.)
Stage 11: Mad Space. Mission: Find 3 pieces of the Master Emerald.
Rouge was near the bottom of a large area outside the colony, sort of in the asteroid field. She was standing on a metal platform that split into three walkways, each leading to a platform with a rocket on top. There were a LOT of floating platforms all over the area. There were also a few dozen small meteors, three small planetoids, and a huge tower jutting from the surface of the space colony. There were dozens of ledges, floating platforms, walkways and cargo containers surrounding the big tower. Rouge hoped the pieces of the Emerald wouldn't be too hard to find in this enormous place. Rouge thought she should start with the planetoids, but which one to go to first? One was greenish and looked like half a sphere, with crystals and space pods growing from the flat upper half, one was spherical and gray with a huge blue space pod at the top, and the last one looked like a giant capsule made of rock, covered in grass and metallic structures. The three rockets around her looked like they would take her to the planetoids. On a whim, she decided to use the one pointing to the green half-sphere. She ran down the path, climbed up the platform, and grabbed the rocket. She was launched into the air, hurtling upward and dropping from the rocket as she got over the half-sphere. She glided down and started looking around the surface. Aside from a few Hunters, crystals and space pods, there didn't seem to be anything there. Despite there not being anything visible, Rouge's treasure senses were detecting something faintly. Getting an idea, she ran to the edge of the planetoid and jumped off. She turned around and glided into the dome-shaped underside of the planetoid, climbing down it's curved surface. She climbed down (Or is it up?) the surface of the planetoid, getting to the lowest point. Her treasure senses went off. Rouge looked up (or is it down?) and saw the Emerald shard floating beneath the planetoid. Rogue let go of the planetoid's surface and started to fall towards the Emerald. She started to glide and grabbed the piece in midair. She continued her glide across the vast expanse in the middle of the area, eventually reaching the spherical planet. She was suddenly flipped over and tugged, feet-first, to the planetoid. She landed, a bit confused and disoriented, but shook it off and started looking for any pieces. She followed her treasure senses to the bottom of the planet, where there was a large platform with a shard on it! She climbed up the side of the platform and grabbed the Emerald piece. Then she tried to jump from the surface of the planet and glide. She couldn't. She only ended up gliding around the surface of the planetoid. It's gravity was too strong for her to escape from. Thinking there might be something helpful in the big blue capsule, Rouge glided over to the pod at the top of the planetoid and climbed up it. She found a rocket pointing right at the capsule-shaped planetoid. She grabbed the rocket and was launched forward, letting go and gliding the rest of the way to the capsule. She landed, pulled in by its gravity, and started wandering around, looking for an Emerald shard. Her treasure senses went off as she approached one of the ends of the capsule. Struggling to climb over the numerous metal structures, Rouge made it to one of the metal "caps" at either end of the planetoid. She was quite pleased to find both a spring to escape the planetoid's gravity and the last Emerald shard. She picked it up, ending the level.
(STAGE CLEAR. RANK A.)
Rouge's treasure senses picked up faint readings from deeper in the asteroid field. She bounced off the spring, escaping the capsule's gravity, and started gliding away, heading out of the area and through the large asteroid field. After a few minutes, she reached another section of the exterior areas, a big platform carved on top of a giant meteor. There were several structures around a large unfinished building, a tower of girders. Rouge glided to the building, stopping on a girder to recalibrate her senses. She was surprised to find the treasure getting closer and closer! She heard gliding and a thump at the other end of the girder as her senses told her the other Emerald pieces were there. She turned around and saw the red echidna from before. A smile came onto her face. "Well, it's been a while since we've last seen each other, isn't it." she paused. "What was your name again?" "Knuckles. I haven't forgotten your name, Rouge." Said the echidna. Rouge frowned. "Hey, you never told me your name! How can I be expected to remember something I didn't know?" Knuckles thought a moment. "Good point. I see you haven't forgotten about the Master Emerald." He said, pointing to her, sensing the energy from the missing Master Emerald shards. "Neither have you. So, are you going to hand the missing pieces over?" Rouge asked. Knuckles snorted. "No way! You hand the missing pieces over!"
"No, you!" "You!" "You!" "You!" "You!" "You!" "Stop!" yelled Rouge. "This isn't getting us anywhere. How about this, we fight each other for the Master Emerald. Whoever beats the other gets the six shards he or she is holding. Sound fair?" Knuckles nodded. "As long as you don't cheat." Rouge grinned, her two vampiric fangs showing. "I may be a thief, but I do have honor! I don't plan on cheating." "Then let's do this." Said Knuckles, tilting his head to the side, indicating they jump down to the floor of the building. "Let's." agreed Rouge. They jumped off the girder and landed in the center of the tower of girders, facing each other in a battle stance.
KNUCKLES
Knuckles and Rouge ran at each other. Knuckles tried to nail her with a punch, but she ducked and hit him in the chest with a kick that sent him reeling. As she ran towards him, Knuckles held his fists out, planning to ram them into her head as she tried to kick him. She jumped over him and came downward in a drill drive, hurting him more than the kick! As Knuckles tried to get up, Rouge kicked him, sending him rolling across the floor. She came towards him again. Knuckles grunted and got up. As Rouge tried to give him another kick, he ducked around the swing and grabbed her leg. As she started to unbalance, startled, Knuckles threw her over his shoulder, sending her into a girder. She winced and got up. He ran towards her, fists ready. Rouge turned around and started climbing up the side of the girder. Knuckles grabbed on to the girder and started climbing after her. When she noticed he was only a few feet underneath her, she smiled and let go. She immediately went into a drill drive, knocking Knuckles off of the girder and sending him smashing to the ground. As he moaned and started to get up, Rouge shot down from above in another drill drive, her own spiked knuckles driving into the echidna's stomach. He groaned and punched upwards, hitting her in the face. She gasped and flipped off of him. Knuckles quickly got up and hit her from behind, sending her several feet back. He came racing towards her. Rouge glared and got ready. When he swung his fists, Rouge swung a leg. The punch and kick connected with each other, deflecting with enough force to send both fighters several yards away from each other. As they started charging for each other again, the ground suddenly opened up, revealing a shaft going straight into the molten core of the giant meteor. As the echidna and bat started to fall, the antigravity generators running up half the tower's height switched on, sending both of them reeling into the air. As Rouge floundered, trying to "swim" to a girder, Knuckles flipped over to a girder, as he was closer to the edge when the floor had opened up. He climbed a little way up the girder and launched off, gliding above Rouge, who was almost to one of the horizontal girders. He spun into a drill drive, hitting her while she was vulnerable. She cried out and kicked him off of her, sending him into the antigravity field. She pulled herself onto the girder, ran along its length, and climbed up a vertical girder. As Knuckles started to get close to one of the horizontal girders, she jumped off the girder and started to glide over to him. As she positioned herself right above him, Knuckles realized what she was doing and tried to get to the girder as fast as possible. Just as she started her drill drive, the floor closed up again and the antigravity cut off. Knuckles had not yet reached the girder and started to fall. This was made worse when Rouge slammed into him from above with the Drill Drive, sending him to the ground faster than before and inflicting constant damage while doing so. He hit the ground hard, hurting more than before due to the impact from Rouge's claws and the hard metal floor. But if Knuckles was one thing, it's resilient, and he punched Rouge off of him and got up. She raced towards him, starting to make a kick. Knuckles ducked beneath the swing and shot up around the leg, hitting her with a spiral uppercut. She fell away, hurt. She felt her jaw; assuring herself it wasn't broken. Knuckles took advantage of her momentary pause and punched her in the gut. He followed this up with an uppercut and a three-hit combo. She staggered back, obviously hurting. Knuckles ran towards her again. Rouge suddenly dropped to the ground and sweeped out with her legs, knocking Knuckles off his feet. She got up and kicked him in the sides, sending him rolling over the floor. He got up before she could come over. She smirked at him as he winced, clutching his ribs. "That'll teach you not to hurt a lady!" she said proudly. "What kind of lady goes around stealing jewels, anyway?" Knuckle asked angrily. "I'll have you know that it has been a tradition in my family for generations! The eldest daughter always becomes a jewel thief, inheriting the treasure senses of her mother and skill at heists!" Rouge responded indignantly. Knuckles blinked. "Really? The same thing sort of works in my family. The first boy of his generation inherits his dad's treasure sense and job as Guardian of the Master Emerald." Rouge couldn't help smiling again. "So you could say we have a lot in common, don't we?" "You just keep thinking that, bat girl!" Knuckles said, running towards her. As she charged at him, the floor opened once more. "Oh, crap!" "Not agaaaaaaaaiiiiiiinnnnnnnnn!" yelled Rouge as the antigravity sent them shooting upwards. They both swam through the air, pulling themselves up on the same girder. "I've had enough of this! Power Flash!" shouted Knuckles. There was a flash of bright light, and Rouge screamed, clutching her eyes in pain, temporarily blinded. Knuckles took advantage of this and ran forward, unleashing multiple punches on the bat while she couldn't see. As he was about to land a crippling blow to her chin, Rouge's sight recovered and she delivered a tremendous kick to the spot between his legs. Knuckles' mouth fell open, his eyes bulging. He fell to the ground, wheezing. Rouge delivered about a dozen crushing kicks to the fallen echidna, knocking him off of the girder just as the floor started to close. She jumped off the girder after him as the antigravity turned off, smashing into him with a Drill Drive and sending both of them crashing to the ground. Knuckles knocked her off. Before Rouge could put up a defense, Knuckles let loose a flurry of punches, each hitting and causing a lot of pain for her. She flipped away, holding her stomach. Rouge was getting really angry at this point. "You think you're so tough? Then take this! Nightmare Shock!" Knuckles was suddenly paralyzed in fear as every nightmare, fear or misgiving he ever had raced from his subconscious, forcing him to relive every moment of terror or discomfort he had ever experienced. He screamed and clutched his head. Rouge ran up to him and hit him with kick after kick, not stopping even when he had recovered from her attack. Knuckles grabbed her foot and threw her over his shoulder as he had before. Rouge got into a stance. Knuckles spun around and did the same. They both let out a punch and kick at the same time, connecting with each other's jaw. The force from the blow to either of them caused them to stagger back, panting. Rouge could vaguely feel that her entire body was hurting. She tuned out the pain, focusing on her desire. She couldn't believe that Knuckles had withstood all of her attacks. Every enemy that she had ever fought before had never come this close to beating her. He had the same strength as she did. He was truly a worthy match. And Rouge couldn't help noticing for the first time how handsome he was, even tired and bloody as he was now. She snapped out of this moment of observation. What was she thinking? She had to get the pieces of the Master Emerald from him! She turned around and ran for the nearest girder. Knuckles did the same thing. Both grabbed onto the girders and started climbing, higher and higher, until they were at the top level of the building. As they reached the top, the floor opened again. They were too high to be affected, but it added an interesting effect to the scene. The two treasure hunters slowly ran around the top girders, meeting each other on the single girder over the middle of the building. They stopped, facing each other. Both were exhausted, feeling like they couldn't take another step without collapsing. Knuckles spoke up. "I have a proposition." he managed to say. "What?" asked Rouge. "We're both severely weakened. One more attack should finish at least one of us off. So I propose we end this battle with one final attack, each of us using our strongest technique. Whoever is left standing wins custody of the Emerald. Sound good?" he asked. She nodded breathlessly. "Yeah, sounds good." "Then let's do this." He raised his arms, gathering what little strength he had left. A ball of yellow electricity gathered above him, crackling and growing in size. Rouge put one foot behind her and twisted her waist, holding her hands cupped and at her hip level. A mass of darkness began to collect in her palms. Knuckles finished charging the attack, the ball of electricity the size of his head. "Thunder Arrow!" The ball shot a bolt of yellow energy with an arrowhead at Rouge. Rouge finished charging the attack, the dark mass filling her cupped hands completely. She swung her waist to face the front, flinging her cupped hands outward. "Black Wave!" The mass shot at Knuckles in the form of a ring of darkness. The two attacks hit their intended victims at the same time. The two hunters screamed in pain and fell over, unconscious.
Rouge groaned and got up, ever part of her body hurting. She winced, trying not to scream, and saw Knuckles was still unconscious. Staggering to her feet, she went over and filched the bag containing the six pother shards of the Master Emerald from his dimensional pocket, emptying them into her own bag. She threw the bag over the edge of the girder and started to walk away. As she was about to jump off the building and glide away, she stopped. Something in her didn't want to leave Knuckles like this. Why did she feel this way? He had put up an exceptionally good match, that's true, but why did she feel like she didn't want to leave him? Could she actually be falling for this strange echidna? Sighing, she turned around and walked back to the girder bridge, waiting for Knuckles to get up. A few minutes later, he did. He blinked a few times, then seemed to sag. He hadn't seen her yet. "Why so glum?" she asked. Knuckles looked up in surprise. "It was a good fight, you almost won. Why are you so sad about losing?" Knuckles shook his head "It-it's nothing. Go. You have all twelve pieces. Take them and leave. You've proven yourself to be a far worthier guardian of the Master Emerald then I ever could be. Just." He looked up. "Just take better care of it than I did, okay?" Rouge looked at him confused. "I don't understand. What are you going on about? It's just another jewel, albeit the biggest one on the planet. Why are you so depressed about not getting your rock back?" Knuckles stared at Rouge, looking surprised. "You mean you don't know?" "Know what?" "Why the Master Emerald is so important to me, to my race?" "No, I just know it's the largest gemstone in the world and has some weird powers." Knuckles shook his head, dismayed. "I don't believe it. You really don't know." "Know what?" asked Rouge, getting a little frustrated. Knuckles looked her straight in the eye. "The Master Emerald has been protected by the Echidna clan of the Crescent for thousands of years, ever since it was brought into being by the deity Chaos. After a rival clan of echidna tried to take the Master, Super and Chaos Emeralds from the clan by force, resulting in the deaths of many Chao and an enraged god of destruction, the princess of that clan, Tikal, had to seal herself and Chaos into the Master Emerald to protect everyone from the rampaging deity. Because of the deaths Chaos had caused due to the invasion by the rival clan, my ancestors used the power of the Master Emerald to raise their land into the clouds, dubbing it Angel Island. The Chaos Emeralds were scattered around the globe as they flew around the world, ensuring they would be protected from evil. To keep the Master Emerald from being taken by those wishing to covet its power, a Guardian was appointed to protect the Emerald for all his days. This tradition has carried on into modern times, leaving me in charge of guarding the Master Emerald after my father's death. Without the Emerald, the island can no longer fly and falls to the ground, usually in the ocean, and becomes a normal island. That would be fine, were it not for the tradition." He sighed. "But it seems that with my failure to take back the shards from you, I have broken that tradition. Angel Island will remain earthbound forevermore. Take the Emerald. Do with it what you will." Rouge looked at Knuckles for a moment, trying to sort some things through. Finally, she made a decision. She pulled the bag she had been using to contain the Emerald pieces and dumped its contents out at Knuckles' feet. He looked at the pieces then at Rouge, amazed. "Why-" "Because I don't want to ruin anyone's life or way of life. The Emerald belongs to your race, Knuckles. I have plenty of other jewels, anyway." She gestured at the pieces. "Go on. You said you could fix the thing. Do it." Still amazed that she had actually given up her prize, Knuckles gathered the pieces together and started assembling them, forming the massive jewel in seconds. It glowed brightly, complete at last. Knuckles put his hand on the Master Emerald and it shrunk to the size of a Super Emerald. He placed it in his dimension pocket. He looked at Rouge, extremely grateful. "Thank you. You have no idea how much this means to me." He paused, scratching the back of his head. "I'm, uh, sorry if I hurt you. Is there any way I can make up for the brutality I showed in the fight?" Rouge took a step forward, her emotions coming to the surface and taking control of her body. "There is one way." She said mysteriously. "Oh? Wha-" Rouge grabbed him and pulled him close, giving him a passionate kiss on the lips. Knuckles found himself unable to break away, nor really wanting to do so. So he enjoyed it, returning the kiss. Rouge fully enjoyed every second of this. After a full minute, Rouge broke away from him and pressed a piece of paper into his hand. She whispered, "See you later." Into his ear, kissed him on the cheek, and headed off, gliding away. Knuckles stood there for another minute, stunned by what had just happened. When he finally came to his senses, he looked at the piece of paper. It had her phone number written on it.
And that is the end of another chapter. Only two more to go until the Last Story begins! I hope you liked this final battle from Rouge's perspective. See you all next time! And please review!