A/N: And now, to answer your questions.
Mistercow: Yes, I do the Ratchet and Clank riddles.
DarkXeno: Ha…no lemons.
Random Thought of the Day: Rouge and Faye Valentine have a lot in common…they're manipulative women concerned mostly with personal gain.
~Raiegki Leviathan
~*~
Operation: Seduce Echidna
Chapter Three: Yours to Defend
~*~
Knuckles awoke with a start. His head was hurting, and something didn't feel right. He sniffed the air. It smelled a little different. Heck, it even felt different. Something bad was happening, or about to happen. He quickly jumped out of bed, jammed his feet into his shoes and ran through the morning dew covered grass towards the Master Emerald.
It was still there.
With a sigh of relief, he stopped to catch his breath. He pushed himself a little too hard over a bad feeling, but he was glad the island's treasure was still safe. He reached over and adjusted his shoes. He was in such a rush that he didn't bother to put them on properly. Not only that, they were now wet and if he continued to wear them, they would probably smell. He would have to take them off and let them dry.
And his head continued to hurt. The cause was probably the alcoholic drinks he had the previous night. He needed sleep. His bed was calling to him, and he felt compelled to listen to it. He yawned and started back. He was about to succumb to the sweet thought of sleep when the call was interrupted by a voice, one he hoped not to hear.
"Good morning, Knucklehead!"
"Rouge…it's five in the morning." Knuckles groaned. His stupid intuition was right. Something bad did happen. He wished it wouldn't bother him until at least seven AM. "It's not polite to visit people this early."
"But you're awake. That's a good sign." Rouge shrugged. She slid a backpack off her arms and tossed it casually on the floor. "And I wanted to see you."
"You couldn't stand to be away from me for more than twelve hours?" Knuckles grumbled, shaking his head. "I can't entertain you today, Rouge. I've got a headache."
"It's probably just a hangover." Rouge laughed, not about to take no for an answer. "I'll bet a few painkillers and an hour or so lying down and you'll be fine. We'll have the rest of the day then. Go take a shower, and where do you keep the medicines?"
Knuckles stared at her with disbelief.
"Listen, are you going to do what I say, or do we have to do this the hard way!?"
~*~
"Why did he have to pick the hard way!?" Rouge moaned. "That was more effort than it was worth." After the echidna took a shower, Rouge was forced to pin him down and literately shove headache pills down his throat. Then she had to keep him down until the medicines took effect.
She had to admit, he had immense strength. It took her best to hold him down when the echidna was at his weakest. She wouldn't have been able to do that if his head wasn't hurting. Rouge figured that if the two of them worked together, they would've made a great treasure hunting team. Almost too great. Rouge wouldn't find any joy in treasure hunting anymore if she could get whatever she wanted whenever she wanted.
However, now that Knuckles was sedated, and if the medicines did what they promised, Rouge would have a free hour to herself.
One hour was plenty of time to grab the Master Emerald and run.
She looked one more time and the echidna, asleep on a couch.
"This time, I win." She smirked. She grabbed her backpack and ran out the door.
~*~
It was beautiful. The Master Emerald, shining in all its glory, sat right there and was hers to take. Rouge's eyes were wide and shining like a child's on Christmas morning. She started to walk towards the treasure, but before she could reach it, the ground started to shake so violently, Rouge was thrown off her feet before she could hover in the air for safety.
Elsewhere, Knuckles was thrown off the couch as he woke up abruptly. He tried to get up, but the combined effects of the drugs and the rumbling kept him down.
The dirt beside the Master Emerald began to start flying. A metal tip appeared. The tip began to grow larger and larger until the bat could see that it was a drill. Another drill came into view, and both drills were attached via robotic arms to a giant egg shaped machine, and we all know what egg shaped machines mean.
"Eggman!" Rouge hissed.
The mechanism began to reach for the Master Emerald.
"I'll be taking this now." Eggman's voice boomed over a speaker. "Thanks very much for this gift, Knuckles- what the…you're not Knuckles!"
"Whoop-de-doo." Rouge sighed, rolling her eyes. "How'd you figure that out, Doctor?"
"You dare mock me!" Eggman fumed. "I have no time to play games with you, bat!"
"Are you saying that the echidna is more worthy of your time than me?" Rouge snarled at him. Eggman paid no heed and started reaching for the Master Emerald again. "What do you think you're doing!? You can't take that!"
"Your roaring is getting irritating!" Eggman yelled. "I'll just have to take you out first!"
The robot lunged at the bat with its two drills, but Rouge was faster, she jumped back and dodged the drills with ease. The machine dropped one of its drills and revealed a hidden missile launcher. It proceeded to fire at her as Rouge spread her powerful wings and lifted off into the air. She reached into her backpack and pulled out a dummy stun ring and tossed it at the launcher. The weapon malfunctioned and shut down.
Eggman shook his fist at her, but he wasn't done yet.
The other drill fell to reveal another weapon: a laser cannon. Eggman locked onto the airborne bat and shot a red laser at her. She moved to dodge it, but wasn't quick enough. The laser struck her dominant arm. Rouge screamed in pain and used her other arm to toss more stun rings at the robot. However, since she was using her weaker arm, she had less force behind the throw as the robot moved away from them.
"Goodbye, Rouge." Eggman sneered as he locked onto her and fired once more, but at the last second Rouge went into a dive and used the momentum to deliver a powerful kick to the robot, causing it to lose its balance and fall onto the ground, smashing the cannon in the process.
Without any more weapons, Eggman decided to try to grab the emerald and run, but Rouge wasn't about to let that happen. She dived again, but this time he swatted her away. Rouge was knocked out of the air and sent sprawling a good distance away from the egg shaped machine. She lifted her head in time to see Eggman take the Master Emerald.
Eggman was about to retreat back into the hole he came out of, but he found Rouge standing in his way. She was burning with rage as she glared at him hatefully.
"Why do you persist to protect this emerald?" He demanded, ready to take her out. "Why? It's not yours to defend."
"You don't understand." Rouge growled. "I'm not here to protect the emerald. I've wanted that thing for so long, and do you think I'm going to just let you waltz in here and take it!? Well I've got one thing to say to you!"
With tremendous speed and strength, Rouge reached into her backpack once more and tossed more dummy rings at the robot.
"That's my Master Emerald!" She screeched, releasing her fury onto the robot. By the time she was through, it was nothing more than a pile of scrap metal. She seized Eggman by the collar and was about to choke him to death, but Knuckles raced onto the scene.
"Rouge!" He gasped, again out of breath. "The Master Emerald! It's-"
"Safe." Rouge finished. She tossed Eggman like a sack of potatoes at Knuckles' feet and placed her foot on his head. "Apologize!" She commanded. When Eggman said nothing, she started to apply pressure to the human's skull. "Apologize to him! Or do you want me to crush your skull!?"
"Sorry." Eggman snorted in a pathetically quiet voice.
"Louder!"
"Sorry!" Eggman cried out.
"Good." Rouge nodded, removing her foot. "Now get out."
Eggman made a hasty getaway.
Rouge smiled and looked over at Knuckles, paralyzed with fear.
"It's okay now." She soothed, giving him a small kiss on the cheek. "He's gone. The Master Emerald is safe now."
~*~
Important Note, must read: This is actually a second, shorter version of the original chapter three. I had it saved originally on a floppy disk, but the disk messed up and wouldn't let me access the chapter. I had to rewrite it, and I don't think this version is as good as the first one. If I can get the original to work, I'll replace this one with it.