CHAPTER 5: Red, White, and Black

Ha ha! thought Rouge, the white-headed bat of 23. I've finally found it! Now, just as long as that annoying echidna doesn't show up... Rouge dropped down out of a tree near a large stone building on Angel Island. She knew what was inside: the Master Emerald, which she'd been trying to find for years. She'd finally found it, alright, in the dead of the night. She wore all black: a tight shirt, pants, boots, gloves and a black toboggan on her head, pulled down over her face and with two holes cut out for her eyes. Besides just around her eyes, the only skin showing on her body was her dark wings, which blended in just as well as the rest of her in the middle of the night. As she hit the ground, Rouge quickly stood up and moved into another shadow nearby, knowing full well that her adversary was in the area, probably watching for her. She saw nothing else around her in all the darkness, so she dashed quickly and quietly for the large building. There was only a staircase and a large doorway between her and the Master Emerald. Forsaking the wide-open staircase, Rouge ran off to the side of it, into the corner of the staircase and the wall adjacent to it. Another look around revealed nothing. Quick as a flash, the white bat was jumping up, kicking off the side of the staircase and the wall, using her wings for extra power. As soon as she was at the top, Rouge ducked into the doorway and pressed herself to the wall just inside and off to the right side. The room was large, and wide open. The large Emerald was in the center, on an iron stand. It gave off a soft green light, which illuminated a medium-sized area around it. All was still clear. It occurred to Rouge that she had no way to move the huge Master Emerald, but she'd come this far, so why not at least touch it? She made an all-out dash for the center of the room. Thirty feet... Almost there! Twenty feet... No sign of him yet! Ten feet... Just a little more! Just five feet from the Emerald, a red figure Rouge's size dropped down out of nowhere and landed on her back. Rouge wasn't hurt, but she knew she was screwed.

"Finally found it, eh?" Knuckles, the red echidna whose job it was to guard the Master Emerald, said in a sort of hostile tone. Like Rouge, he was wearing all black, except his face was visible and his gloves were white. He'd been hanging from the ceiling using his spiked knuckles, knowing Rouge was coming. The rest of what he did to stop her is fairly obvious.

"Great," Rouge said sarcastically, though a bit strained, being that she had a bunch of weight on her back. "Yeah, I found it, and I nearly got to touch it."

"Wrong," said Knuckles, grinning widely. "I knew you were here the whole time, I just wanted to let you THINK you had it won."

"Gee, isn't THAT sporting of you?" Rouge grabbed the top of her toboggan with one hand and jerked it off. The cool air blowing across her face felt great, but that wasn't her main concern just yet. "Can you get off me now?"

"Nope." Knuckles pulled out a small black bottle, and pulled off the top. What it contained, Rouge wasn't sure, but she knew she was about to find out. "First I gotta make sure you aren't trying anything." Knuckles knelt down and held the bottle under Rouge's nose, while she tried not to inhale any of it. However, after about 10 seconds, she caught a whiff of it, and she immediately began to feel drowsy. Another sniff, and she passed out. Knuckles the put the lid back on the bottle, stepped off Rouge's back, gently rolled her over with one foot, and looked down at her. "I never realized this, but DAMN, she's cute. She's caused me a lot of trouble, though. Need to get her out of here before that stuff wears off." He bent down, lifted Rouge up, and set off to get her off the island.

Hours later, Rouge woke up in the back of a cab, in the middle of Station Square. She shook her head, looked around, and tried to figure out what had happened. What had she been doing the whole night? The details were very fuzzy to her, and only seemed to be getting fuzzier.

"Hey, where is this?" she asked the cabbie. He looked over his shoulder.

"You're in the back of my cab, Miss," he replied. "Been sleeping pretty heavy, too." Rouge could make out a few of his features even with her blurred vision. He seemed to be a white bobcat with a black nose, but that was about all she could tell. "So, where to? The guy who flagged me down told me you'd tell me where to head when you woke up."

"Uh, Station Square apartment complex, willya?" she requested.

"You got it," said the cabbie. "The other guy paid me a bit in advance to drive around until you woke up, so you won't owe me for the hours before now."

"Good," Rouge said, yawning widely. "I don't have a lot of cash on hand anyway. Speaking of which, how long have I been in here?"

"About 4 hours."

After paying the cabbie, Rouge stepped into her apartment. She lived in the same complex as Sonic and Tails, but she didn't see a lot of them. She stepped into her almost unfurnished living room and threw herself on the couch, the only piece of furniture in the room. She had just slept a while, but she felt like she hadn't slept in days. Her slightly dusty laptop lay on the floor beside the couch, completely unhooked: she hadn't used it for weeks. As soon as she was comfortable, Rouge drifted off to sleep, not knowing she was being watched. As soon as she was out cold, the figure watching from outside moved away from the window and disappeared into the darkness.

Well, bit of an interesting one, wasn't it? Rouge finds her treasure at last, only to have her memory of it wiped out by two whiffs of some weird shit in a very small bottle. That's GOT to suck. I'll see about having the next chapter up tomorrow or the day after. Also, I gotta apologize about not replying to any reviews. I'd LIKE to, but I don't know how to go about it. Maybe I need to find out, huh? Anyway, thanks to everyone who's submitted them so far. I'm glad y'all are enjoying the story.