Chapter 4: Capers and Crisis

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Once, she really did almost consider giving up this crummy line of work. But, was it really all that crummy when compared to alternatives? She could have made the announcement, it would spread across the globe like wildfire: Rouge The Bat ends long career as treasure hunter!! Then what? Retire? Become a shuffleboard jockey at her young age? Actually, it would seem ridiculous for someone who still had all her curves to hang around wrinkled old thrill seekers on cruises and in casinos. Of course, she was exaggerating all that, but that's Rouge's style, always make the situation worse than it is, then come up with a fool proof plan that would handle anything of lesser danger (i.e. the real situation).

To her, the lesser danger was to stay in this line of work. True there was still a good deal of danger, the greatest of which, not being paid for a job well done. But, to quit was impossible. Putting one's life on the line typically becomes addictive. And Rouge was in definite need of rehab. Why else would she be suspended from a ceiling, about to steal the purple Chaos Emerald from a huge, muscle bound crook that just robbed a bank for the same gem?

This guy had the strength and the firepower to do the job. He had used explosives to blow open a hole in the wall, directly into the safe. Though Rouge was in the same building about to crack the combination in an after hours withdrawal, she wasn't too upset with "Mr. Stealth's" approach, it just meant stealing it from him. Now, most others would consider the job easier taking the goods from the safe, not from this Goliath's mitts. Being subtler than the first thief, Rouge silently glided behind his getaway car and followed him to an abandoned warehouse. "Please, did the amateurs always have to show they were amateurs?" Now she was only inches above his head, as he had decided to doze off in a chair, with his prize within her grasp. Or, so she thought.

She overstretched herself, how embarrassing, and came loose from the ceiling, fell onto the larger thief, and rolled down onto the floor, the Chaos Emerald in hand. The hulking criminal jumped to his feet and saw Rouge. "Well, what do we have here," he growled, "If it isn't a little cutie about have me kick her booty!" Rouge, grinned at this sad excuse for a poet, "That's what you think." In a rage the lug grabbed the wooden chair he was resting on in one hand and brought it down like a club at Rouge. Being quicker, though, Rouge jumped back up to the ceiling and clawed into it with one hand and held the emerald in the other. As the chair shattered into splinters, Rouge released the ceiling and came down, heels first, into the back of the guy's head. Trying to defend himself, he swung his arm up at her. This guy's fighting style was nowhere near impressive to Rouge who just jumped onto the floor and brought a quick swipe of her free claws at the guy's face. Now getting terrified of the assailant half his size, he reeled backwards, Rouge followed with a roundhouse kick to his face, sending him into a wall.

With competition out of the way and prize in hand, Rouge made her way to the roof and flew away. Now, she just had to make her way to Dr. Eggman's fortress once again. She laughed aloud when she thought back on when she first showed up on his doorstep. The old coot had completely missed the homing device Rouge had attached to his Flyer as he was leaving. That's why Rouge was a top-notch spy. Apparently the doctor was unaware of that fact, despite his earlier encounters.

Rouge almost broke out in hysteric laughter when she remembered the look on his face. She'd seen beets dozens of shades lighter than the red Eggman turned when she had even snuck her way inside undetected. Getting past all the security, even going so far as to appear in his central control room at the top of the tower. After Eggman's blood pressure dropped to within reasonable bounds, she presented the first of the Chaos Emeralds she'd found. Then, Eggman was totally relaxed, giddy even. So happy, in fact, he followed up on his part, giving a full mission's pay for the emerald. The scene was repeated four more times, minus Eggman's tantrums, over a period of three weeks. Now, all she had to do was present this and one more emerald and she'd be done and a lot richer. To think, she considered giving up this lifestyle!

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Cream stood in the upstairs window of her little house in the forest. She'd been watching the skies for a better part of the night. She'd fallen into this habit for the longest time now. It seemed like a few months ago that weird sounds could be heard from certain parts of the forest. Those stopped around three weeks ago. Then, the really strange things began to happen.

For the last two weeks, she'd been spotting someone, or something floating through the night sky and heading into the deeper part of the forest. Not only that, but she'd also been seeing lightning without any thunder. One minute there'd be nothing, and then there'd be a whooshing sound and a streak of yellow light shoot across her field of vision. This would terrify the little six-year-old, if it weren't for the fact that she had Cheese with her to watch the strange goings on. Just having each other calmed them down. And besides, nothing bad had happened to them as a result of any of this. Still, she decided to get someone else's opinion on the matter. Not being able to get in touch with Sonic or Tails, she settled on someone she thought just as good: Amy Rose.

It seemed like forever, but Amy finally arrived some time way up into the night. Cream was about to doze off in a chair when Amy came. "Hey, there!" Amy called happily as she came in. Cream and Cheese instantly perked up and showed all the signs of happiness to their visitor. Quickly Cream described the strange happenings to Amy.

"So, you say there's something not right around here," Amy asked. "Uh- huh," Cream nodded. "Well, don't you worry, now that I'm here, I'm glad to help in anyway I can," Amy stated triumphantly. "Chao!" and "Yay!" were the replies.

Minutes later the three were sitting, quietly, looking out the same window Cream had been occupying for so many nights. It wasn't long till one of their sights showed itself. Some odd shape flew quickly across the night sky. It was heading north. "Wow, you were right," Amy gasped. "What do we do then?" Cream asked worry all over her face. Amy thought a moment, "Well, we can't get Sonic, he's out of reach right now. So, I guess, we investigate ourselves!" Amy was a little less confident than what she'd like to be in saying that. But she'd faced down Zero, so she knew could she hold her own. Cream was no great fighter, but she could defend herself, a little, so she was up for the adventure. And because his best friend was going Cheese quickly agreed as well.

The main reason Amy wanted the two come with her though, was that she wanted to be able to keep an eye on them. She'd worry her brains out about them if she'd left them alone. That, and company always made her feel better. Following the direction that the UFO had traveled, the trio calmly walked through the forest.

They were beginning to get really tired when they saw a clearing and the soft glow of lights up ahead. Cautiously they approached it. Unknown to them, Amy and Cream stepped through a sensor beam. They peered off into the distance. There stood an intimidating sight.

A huge tower stood silently in the middle of the clearing, all around it were smaller structures, and beyond that was a huge fence that was unbelievably tall. Apparently, someone big and mean had moved into these woods. "Oh no, this must be Dr. Eggman's doing," Amy whispered to her two friends. They silently nodded. Filled with fear, they silently, unanimously decided to leave. That's when Amy saw him.

She couldn't believe it at first, but there was no mistaking it. The figure seemed to glide across the ground as he left the other side of the clearing. He moved incredibly fast toward the fencing. He stopped at the huge gate. In the faint light, Amy made it out to be none other than THE Shadow the Hedgehog!! The gates opened a crack for Shadow to pass on through and then shut once he was in. Questions of how he could be alive and still working for Dr. Eggman ricocheted through her head. But, Cream's incessant tugging at her arm brought her back to reality. "Oh my, we've GOT to get Sonic!" Amy almost shouted. All of the excitement distracted Amy from a large lumbering shape behind the little spies. Suddenly, it placed a huge paw on her shoulder, nearly causing her to jump out of her skin.

Big the Cat nearly stumbled backwards when Amy jumped and yelped. She spun around terrified, but that lasted only a second, then she was calmly breathing deep breaths trying to calm down further. "Uh, why are you so excited?" Big asked dumbly. Amy sighed, "Oh, Big, what are you doing here?" Big smiled, "Froggy and I are on a fishing trip!" Amy nearly fell backward, "What?! Don't you always fish?" Big continued blissfully ignorant, "Yeah, but we decided to TRAVEL and fish for a vacation." Amy almost asked questions about where he was fishing, why he'd snuck up on them, and other important things, but she just settled on trying to shoo him away. "Uh, look Big, we're really busy, so why don't you enjoy your vacation and we'll visit with you later, huh?" Amy said in her kindest voice. Big smiled, "Uh, okay. See you later, then." With that, Big disappeared as suddenly as he came.

"Who was that?" Cream asked really confused. Amy sighed again, "Oh, him? Well, he's a friend of mine who has this really weird way of appearing out of thin air and disappearing. He's been doing that as long as I can remember having met him." With her explanations out of the way, Amy decided to get the three of them away from this place and to Sonic ASAP. As they were leaving though, something was watching them.

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The spherical camera robot hovered high in the branches of a tree and watched as the three intruders began to depart. From one of his monitors, Dr. Eggman watched with much anxiety as someone had found him out. He was too close! His new fortress was complete, he almost had all the Chaos Emeralds, and Shadow's reprogramming.....was still incomplete, but it wouldn't be long now.

Almost half a year had passed and Shadow had completely recuperated. Dr. Eggman would even let him head out into the forest for exercises. But, the brainwashing was going slowly because of his heart resisting. Dr. Eggman had been trying to completely erase Maria from Shadow's memory. An unforeseen effect stopped this, Shadow's love for Maria proved far too strong. Shadow's sheer willpower in clinging to Maria was hindering Eggman. So, a few weeks ago, Eggman instead opted for erasing two particular parts of his memory, instead of a complete reprogramming.

First to go was the exact sequences of Maria's death. Still Shadow fought hard in the mental battle, but the computers were beginning to take ground. Shadow could still love Maria, but now he was unsure of how she had passed on. He began to be troubled slightly over how that information seemed to slip away, along with others, over time. When he'd bring up the matter to Dr. Eggman, he'd dodge the issue. Without a clear picture of Maria's death, the all too critical promise began to fade, into non-existence. But, that's the distant past.

Eggman then set about to distort Shadow's memories of Sonic. It actually proved easiest of all to rearrange. Because of their heated rivalry, Shadow developed an adverse reaction to Sonic. Little by little Eggman turned Shadow's emotions from disagreement, to resentment, to pure hatred. It was going almost according to plan. But, Eggman couldn't totally trust Shadow's custom-built allegiance. He realized that in order to make Shadow completely obedient, he'd have to take longer than he expected to finish his work. That was, provided, if he was able to keep secrecy.

"Argh!" Eggman bellowed, "Sonic's little fan club is wise to my new base! It won't be long until Sonic himself shows up!" There was no way around it; he had to stop them from informing Sonic, at any cost. That's when Rouge stepped into the room.

"Well doctor," she began triumphantly, "Here's your latest Chaos Emerald!" Eggman shot her a mean look, walked up, and snatched the emerald from her presenting hand. "Good, but you won't be receiving pay for this one just yet!" snapped the doctor. "Why?!" Rouge demanded. "Because..." Eggman responded while pointing at the large monitor behind him. Rouge peered at the screen, "Isn't that Sonic the Hedgehog's little girlfriend?"

"Exactly," came out harshly, "now, if Sonic's waiting for them, it won't be long until he shows up HERE!"

"That's bad news for you," Rouge resumed in her snob voice, "but why should that cut my pay?"

Eggman nearly popped, "As an incentive to find the last emerald faster, you won't be paid until you bring me the last one!"

Rouge saw she was in a good position, "Well, then if you're going to inconvenience me, then you'll have to pay double the original price for this one and the last one."

She was sure Eggman would pop this time, but even he saw he was in the corner, "Fine, whatever, just get that last emerald!"

Rouge smirked at the doctor, then left. He nearly gave chase after her for that smirk. He hated being smirked at ever since he first met Sonic. But, thinking of Sonic put his mind back to his other problem. Eggman knew Sonic and Tails enough to the extent that they wouldn't let Amy or Cream, or even Cheese for that matter, come out on a recon mission by themselves like this. So, they'd apparently only now discovered him by themselves. But, he couldn't risk them eventually revealing his schemes before they were ready. He didn't want to risk overplaying his hand either. So, he'd let them get far enough away, let them think they'd be safe, and then STRIKE!!

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End Chapter Sonic Shout-Out

Today's Shout-Out is a special one, as it's going out to three people at once:

RockChick!

JinMakkto!

Neo9!

Though your reviews were all short, I loved getting them anyway. Just having the heart to type in a few good words, is a great thing to me. And by the by RockChick, I hope you realize I couldn't include Fleetway into my "Guide", sorry. Anyway folks, see you tomorrow! And don't forget, 'Sonic X' is exactly a WEEK AWAY! YAY!!