S. Chensu: WE'RE SORRY FOR NOT GETTING THIS UP ON TIME!
Luff: The reason why is because we left it until Sunday and then Chen was suddenly called away to start her new part time job-
S. Chensu: Wahoo, I finally have some money!
Luff: However, we're only one day late so it's not too bad.
S. Chensu: Although this episode is! It's short and because of me writing my Yu-Gi-Oh! story (which I'll hopefully start posting up soon if anyone wants to read it. Please check profile for more details (Figure 0.9) and tell me about it in your review) it's got some very strange random bits in it.
Luff: But we'll let you read it and decide.
S. Chensu: Anyway, onto responses to reviews now. I'm pleased to say we got a lot more for the last chapter; in fact we got 5 reviews!
Luff: Humph, although three of them were for other chapters.
S. Chensu: That's not the point! Anyway in response to questions/comments etc:
RichaCo- Thank you for reviewing once again! We're sorry for the shortness of the last chapter, this one is a little bit short too but hopefully it'll still be exciting.
RavenGhost- Here's the update and we're happy that you like it so much!
Dragon Master Naya- We're not really sure what Shadow does; it's up to you we suppose. For the first few days it was mostly decorating but now… Maybe we'll decide what he does in this chapter.
Shadow Streak- Nice to know you think our story's good. When we have time somewhere in the next ten years or so (don't worry, it will be before then…hopefully…) we're going to read everyone's stories out of those who have reviewed for us in return for being so nice. We know Shadow doesn't have much action but he will soon. So will Eggman…unfortunately.
anime/tcgfan- If you read the author's note for episode 12, you'll see we've already answered this question but we'll answer it again. When we started writing this, we hadn't actually finished Sonic Adventure 2 (or got very far with it for that matter…) so we didn't know she would be there at the end. By the time we realised our huge mistake, we'd done too much of the story to go back and change it all. We're sorry if you're a big Amy fan but not many people seem to mind her lack of appearance in this story.
Mai&Yugi, who is occupied yet again- Guys, it's lovely that you review and all (even though we practically bribed you to) but please remember to review the right chapter and mention the story somewhere in it instead of talking about Yu-Gi-Oh! all the time. We told you this only two episodes ago.
Luff: Now that's over, it's on to the story!
S. Chensu: You may be surprised by the sudden change in story plot but it was necessary to explain the Eggman situation. And another point to just say that the second section of this episode is done with everyone answering the questions, that's why there's little/no description. And a warning that there will be swearing in this episode.
Luff: Argh, we forgot the disclaimer!
S. Chensu: Oops! Just to make a note that we don't own the Sonic characters or the book "War and Peace". All we own is the story and Sammie, Emily, Gillian and Suzie for this episode. And the robot.
Luff: Now we can get on with the episode!
Episode fourteen: Guilty until proven innocentIt was a Tuesday evening and the gang were watching television. The news specifically but it didn't matter in particular what it was because as far as Sonic was concerned, it was boring. But Eggman insisted on watching it anyway, saying they had to see if anything major had happened. Shadow had agreed with him and they weren't swayed when Sonic pointed out that if something major were to happen, they could see it out of the window. This had merely caused Rouge to smack him around the back of the head and call him an idiot. It still hurt and so Sonic rubbed the back of his head in a sulk while Tails, sitting next to him, was trying to suppress a fit of giggles.
The newsreader had just finished reading a story about a goose being chased through the park by an angry middle-aged woman when her hand went to her earpiece and she frowned.
"News has just come in of a bank robbery in Bickley committed yesterday at eight o'clock in the evening." The others sat up when they heard this and Eggman increased the volume. "The burglar was apparently caught on security cameras and police are currently searching for the thief." The woman's face disappeared and was replaced by an amateur video of the bank and a white creature flying away from it, carrying several bars of gold.
"Hey, that looks like…" Tails started, but was soon cut off by the news reporter, who began to rapidly reel off more information about the robbery.
"The thief has been identified as a young, female bat with white fur and wearing black clothes. Several eyewitnesses have…" Rouge sat there, stunned.
It can't be me… She thought, gazing helplessly at the T.V. Another shot of the robbery came on the screen, but this time with a closer view of the counterfeit Rouge: it was a spitting image of her.
Rouge felt the tears well up in her eyes as she continued to stare at the screen, the horrifying event washing over her. The others looked at her in surprise; they seemed just as shocked as she was. She felt something brushing her hand and looking down, she saw that it was Knuckles. He gripped her hand with his own and squeezed it slightly to reassure her.
"I'm sure it's all just a big misunderstanding Rouge, they won't try and arrest you, I'm sure of-" His deep voice was suddenly cut off though by the barging down on the front door and the crashing of windows.
The next few minutes nobody could remember, apart from the confusion and chaos felt by all, like a hurricane had come along and swept everything sane away. One by one they were arrested and while Knuckles and Sonic passionately argued against the whole thing, Rouge remained quiet, the life gone from her eyes. She didn't know why she felt so bad, she hadn't done anything wrong, she knew she was innocent but even then, she wondered what would happen to the others. Eggman being found out, the Master Emerald located and Shadow being confirmed as being alive, despite the fact he was supposed to be dead. It was all very well lying to the council and the schools but the police were a different matter. They were the law, the unstoppable wall with the harsh glare of spotlights shining upon anything unusual or untruthful. Red and blue, washing over you, too bright to look at. And then the coldness of the room, a lonely table and set of chairs, all there is to show for your life.
"Officer, why are you doing this? She's innocent, I swear!" Sonic yelled as he was literally dragged into the interview room.
"Sir, if you don't control yourself we'll have to charge you for police harassment and disturbing the peace." One of the officers stated as they plonked Sonic in a chair. He sat there; arms crossed and frown on his face. The two officers sat on the other side of the table and one of them turned the recorder on. "The time is nineteen thirty." He said before leaning back in his chair.
"Name?"
"Sonic."
"Age?" A new voice, a different room but looking exactly the same as the other.
"Ten."
"Date of birth?" Another new voice, another new room.
"The twentieth of June, 1987."
"Status?"
"The ultimate life form."
"Pardon?"
"I said student."
"What were you doing on the evening of the twenty third of September?"
"Homework."
"Having a bath."
"Watching TV."
"Having an arm wrestle with Sonic."
"Having an arm wrestle with Shadow."
"Reading."
"For a whole evening?"
"Yes, do you realise how much coursework I have to do?"
"Yes. I did my hair, nails and plucked, waxed and shaved."
"They were having a marathon session of Clanger episodes."
"Sonic just wouldn't admit to losing."
"It was best out of twenty."
"'War and Peace' is a very long book."
"So no one actually saw you?"
"They're all men, what do you think?"
"So she could have left the flat when she was in the bath?"
"No because I could see the door from where I was."
"And there aren't any windows in the bathroom she was in."
"But surely if you were fully absorbed in your book, you couldn't see the door?"
"Well he would have heard it."
"But Tails says he was watching the TV."
"So? Knuckles went in the bathroom later."
"But Rouge said that no one went in."
"Apart from Knuckles. They're together and the only reason he went in was to give her a bottle of nail polish."
"What colour?"
"How the hell should I know? Do I look like I wear nail polish to you?"
"It was a pinkish colour, frosted I think."
"And nothing else happened while he was in there?"
"No! What do you think I am, a slut?"
"How was she acting at school?"
"Like normal. You know, chatting and stuff like that."
"Chatting to who?"
"You know, like people in our class."
"Any names in particular?"
"Well Sammie and Emily, Gillian, Suzie…maybe some others."
"So you can account for all of the others then?"
"Yes inspector I can. Can I go now?"
"Just a couple more questions."
"Fine then, whatever."
"You may leave now, you've been released." Sonic looked up when he heard this and sighed in relief.
"Thank you." He stood up and went to the door of the cell, suddenly remembering why he was here in the first place. "What about Rouge? Are you going to release her?" The guard ignored him, merely walking away in response to his question. "Hey mister, I asked you a question!" He shouted.
"Sonic, there you are! Come on, let's get outside, the others are waiting for us." Sonic turned around, hearing Tails' voice and saw him standing by the reception, using his arm to lean on the wall.
"What about Rouge?" Tails scowled at this.
"I'll tell you about that outside."
Once they were out of the police station, they found Knuckles and Eggman having a huge argument with each other while Shadow looked on, unsure as to whether he should get involved or not. Sonic turned to Tails, hoping he might have some idea as to why they were arguing and he sighed, rolling his eyes. They soon reached Shadow and he turned to face them properly, seemingly glad of the distraction.
"What the hell is going on?" Sonic whispered, not quite sure why he was talking so quietly.
"Knuckles is blaming Eggman for Rouge getting arrested. He's got it into his head that Eggman created that robot to get back at her." Shadow explained neutrally although he had a very annoyed expression on his face.
"Get back at her for what though? She didn't betray him or anything." Sonic asked, still utterly bewildered by the whole situation.
"We're not quite sure on that part yet. He hasn't given any evidence to prove this and anyway, she never betrayed him or did anything that she wasn't supposed to." Shadow replied, musing on the problem. "Apart from it took her so long to get the Chaos Emeralds on Prison Island she nearly got blown up with it." He added afterwards.
"He's probably just angry and needs someone to blame. Unfortunately the fact that Eggman has tricked him so many times before doesn't really help his case. Or the fact he's the one who built both Metal Sonic and Mecha Knuckles." Tails commented.
"Yeah but that was in the past. Surely if Eggman wanted to capture us all etc etc he would have done it by now?" Sonic pointed out.
"Hey, don't tell me that, tell Knuckles. He's the one who's ready to blow a fuse." Tails said, shrugging his shoulders.
Sonic looked over to where Eggman and Knuckles were and noticed that things seemed to have calmed down a bit. Now they were just talking over each other instead of trying to deafen each other.
"You caused trouble for us last time and now you're going to do it again! You bastard, don't you think you've caused enough problems as it is without adding to them?" Despite the height difference, Knuckles still seemed to be threatening by his aggressive voice and posture.
"Now Knuckles why would I do something like this? There is no advantage in making you lot my enemies-" For possibly the first time in his life, Eggman seemed worried by what would happen.
"So you decided to gain our trust before springing your trap!"
"No, I didn't! And anyway, how am I expected to take on the five of you? Shadow and Rouge certainly won't go against you now and they know me too well for me to be able to hide my plans!"
"That's a point Eggman, why have you changed? All these years you've struggled against us, whether it was to get the Chaos Emeralds of just destroy us in general, and now you've suddenly and seemingly miraculously changed. What's up with that? Is it another cunning plan?"
"No, I /have/ changed! Why can't you just accept that?" Eggman yelled, now becoming angry at Knuckles' continual denial. "I would never want to hurt your relationship with Rouge and I just haven't had the time to build or even /think/ about robots recently. And anyway, where was I supposed to hide it, in my bedroom? If you still don't believe me, ask Shadow. He can account for my actions." Knuckles turned to face Shadow who looked worried at the mention of his name.
"Err, yeah. I don't really go out during the day, too many chores to do. I suppose you haven't thought about the amount of washing you four create, especially Rouge." Shadow stared at Knuckles, eyebrow raised.
"Please Knuckles, stop blaming Eggman. I don't believe it was him so why should you?" Sonic added, stepping forward. "If Eggman really did want to capture us all or whatever, he would have done it by now surely? Don't jump to conclusions, it will ruin our chances of getting Rouge out of there if we're fighting with each other all the time."
"Well you may believe him but he's tricked me too many times! I'm not willing to just let that go!" Knuckles shouted, crossing his arms.
"Knuckles, that was all in the past! Come on, let's just go home and try to think of how to get the police to release Rouge." Tails pleaded, close to tears by the whole situation. Knuckles stared at him, not sure of what to do for a moment before nodding his head and sighing.
"You're right, all of you are right. I'm sorry for acting like an idiot, can you forgive me?" He asked quietly.
"Don't worry, we forgive you. And don't worry about acting like an idiot, Sonic /is/ an idiot so that's ok." Shadow commented, earning a punch on the arm from Sonic.
"Let's go home and discuss what to do." Eggman said and nodding their heads in agreement, the group made their way home.
Tails, Sonic and Knuckles made their way to school the next day quietly, still depressed by the events of last night. They weren't sure what they were going to tell everyone, confused by the situation and what the status of it was. Sonic and Knuckles said goodbye to Tails in front of his school before making their way to Maples.
Once they got to school, they found out that Eggman had phoned the school and explained the situation to them, bringing relief. But when they got to the classroom, something else strange was apparent: Sammie and Emily were missing. Maybe it wouldn't have mattered so much if it was someone else but according to Gillian, they had never had a day off since year eight. So the fact they were suddenly gone seemed to make the whole class on edge, and didn't help Sonic and Knuckles' nervousness.
Nobody mentioned Rouge's arrest, maybe because they had been previously told not to talk about it and they left school without hearing or talking about it once. Once they met up with Tails, they told him about the whole Sammie and Emily situation.
"Don't you think it's strange that after three years of a perfect record, they suddenly don't turn up for school? What if they're seriously hurt?" Sonic asked when he had explained it to Tails.
"Well Sonic, they are allowed to get ill you know. And the likelihood is, if one of them is off, the other one is too because they're so close." Tails replied but seeing that he wasn't satisfied, he shrugged his shoulders. "If it bothers you that much maybe we should go round and see if they're there."
"Good idea Tails."
They arrived at Sammie and Emily's house and saw that as usual, there was no car in the driveway. They had never mentioned where their parents worked, but wherever it was, it was either far away or an early out, late in job. Sonic knocked on the door but got no reply, so he tried to turn the handle, only for the door to swing wide open.
"That's weird…do you think they're in?" He asked.
"Well they're not the type to skive off school, even if they haven't done their homework so I suppose so." Knuckles commented, poking his head through the doorway. "However, I don't think we should go in though, just in case they are out. They might catch us or something."
"Oh come on Knuckles, where's your sense of adventure?" Sonic asked, stepping into the house.
"Sonic, I really don't think this is a good idea…"
"Oh relax, what can happen?"
"This is the part where something unexpected happens…" Tails muttered but nevertheless followed Sonic in.
"Well I'm waiting out here. If they come back, I don't want to be the one to get into trouble." Knuckles said, sitting down on the step.
"Ok then, you can keep an eye out for us. We'll be back soon." Sonic said as he placed his bag down on the floor.
Sonic and Tails quickly looked around the bottom floor but after finding an extreme lack of activity, they decided to try upstairs, despite Knuckles' warning. They stood on the landing at the top of the stairs, wondering whether to go in or not.
"I don't really want to find them in their rooms or something…" Tails whispered.
"We'll just knock on their doors and if there's no reply we'll quickly peek in and then leave. If there is, we'll just say we came to visit to check that they're all right and then leave." Sonic said before knocking on Emily's door. "Hey Emily, are you in there?" There was no reply so he opened the door slightly and looked for the bed. Finding nobody in there, he went to Sammie's room and did the same thing. Yet again hearing no reply, he opened the door only for something with black wings to fly at his face before everything went dark…
They found themselves down at the bottom of the stairs, not quite sure of what had just happened. They shrugged it off and finding Knuckles, they made their way back home to see if Eggman and Shadow had made any developments with Rouge.
It was the third day in the court case of Rouge. Despite their hardest efforts, Rouge had still been charged with robbery and was now on trial. Things seemed to be looking good for Rouge, thanks to the alibis of the others but there was still the problem that the thief looked exactly like her, the main argument of the prosecution. She had remained calm throughout this, hoping that the jury would see it her way although this wasn't true for Knuckles.
In fact, it was the second time he had been chucked out in just the last day and had been threatened by the judge to be banned from the courtroom if he continued behaving the same way. Rouge had talked to him several times, each occasion telling him that everything was going to be ok and that it wouldn't really help her case if he acted like this. He had just shrugged his shoulders, saying it wasn't his fault.
Knuckles seemed to be taking this worse than Rouge was. She had heard from Eggman about the argument they had had and felt sorry for him. Yes, he had been evil but he had changed now and she could understand why he did what he did. He wanted power, so had she at one point. But she was happy to know that he supported her so much and the others too. Eggman had worked so hard, getting her a lawyer and making sure her rights were protected. She had a feeling it was so he could prove to Knuckles that he /had/ changed but she still appreciated it anyway.
The guards had just returned from dragging Knuckles out of the room yelling his head off and she sighed, rolling her eyes at her boyfriend's lack of control. The court had finally settled down and the prosecutor was about to continue cross-examining Tails when a large crash was heard.
The whole court was surprised to see a bat standing on the desk in front of the prosecutor and it took a few moments for them to realise that it was a robot and also the fact it looked exactly like Rouge! Great chaos ensued, with the public running from the gallery and the jury hiding under the benches. The judge was suddenly being the most active he had been throughout the trial and sat up straight, looking at the robot without fear.
"What are you and what do you want?" He asked, eyes narrowed.
"I don't have to answer your questions, pathetic mortal." It replied in a toneless voice, but it still filled Rouge with fear. "I am the one you are looking for, the thief who stole your precious gold." It placed a bag down on the table and the end of a bar of gold could be seen through the hole at the top.
"Who are you working for?"
"I work for my master, someone who could make you cower in fear if you were to be in his presence." It looked at the judge and stared at him, almost as though reading his thoughts. "And no, I am not associated with any of these people, I merely did this to show you my master's power."
"Well if your master is so strong, then why doesn't he show himself?" Sonic suddenly yelled out.
"Oh you'll see him soon, sooner than you think." It turned towards the window and blasted off into the air. "But until then, goodbye."
It flew through the window at a phenomenal speed, causing paper to blow into the air and Rouge took this as her opportunity to escape and follow the robot. Nobody got her falsely accused of crimes without paying for it.
She took off after the robot and saw It heading into the distance, a trail of white smoke behind it. She flew as fast as she could, the wind tearing through her fur, making her feel like she was being ripped apart. But she couldn't find It. It just seemed to vanish into thin air, nothing left but a white line in the sky.
"We hereby drop the charge of robbery against Rouge the bat and release her." The judge read out, triggering shouts of joy from the group. Rouge started crying, causing Knuckles to rush to her side while Sonic rolled his eyes, moaning about girls getting too emotional.
The guards led her out of the court and she stood still for a moment, savouring the fresh air before opening her eyes and nearly being blinded by the lights of cameras going off. She found herself surrounded by microphones with at least ten people asking her how she felt. Not sure whether she was allowed to make a statement or not, she decided what the heck, she may as well anyway.
"How does it feel to be cleared of the charge Rouge?" A man yelled out, microphone in hand.
"I would just like to say-" As soon as she started talking, the journalists quietened down, allowing her to continue. "I would just like to say thank you to the judge for realising I wasn't guilty and also thank you to my friends who supported me throughout." She looked behind her and saw the group standing near the top of the stairs, causing her to smile. "They kept me sane during all the bad times. I just want to get back to my life now."
S. Chensu: WE'RE SORRY FOR THE SHORTNESS OF THIS!
Luff: WE'RE SORRY FOR HOW BAD THIS IS!
S. Chensu: But it was certainly different, wasn't it? We hope you liked it and if not, please tell us. Just don't swear, or be too mean.
Luff: Next episode should be up on time, although yet again Chen won't be here because she's on a Biology field trip to do her coursework.
S. Chensu: Grr, stupid coursework!
Luff: So it won't be up until Sunday evening because she'll be back by then.
S. Chensu: Anyway, enjoy life and the week until the next weekend and our next instalment.