Chapter Three: The Chaos Thickens
(A/N: Sorry this installment took so long. I had to fight off the evil Writer's Block. I'm back though and this chapter will introduce a new character :) Enjoy!)
Chaos Karaoke Bar Special #3:Enter Rouge
As the sun rises . . .
Shadow: (walks inside from a morning jog) Ahh. That was good. Hey Sarco! Is breakfast ready?
Sarco: (sticks his head out of the smoke-filled window) Almost. I think I've gotten the handle of this now.
Shadow: (mutters) Thank Chaos I went out and had breakfast. (sees Author asleep on the couch)
Author: ..Zzz..
Shadow: Oh man. He still hasn't wakened up yet? It's almost 11 a.m.
(in comes Knuckles)
Knux: Hey guys. (looks at Author) Um, Shadow, who is this guy?
Shadow: Our current employer. Say, did you find a new act for the show?
Knux: I sure did. (whips out a remote and pushes a button)
(a spotlight shines on the stage and a woman starts to sing)
Author: Ooo, where is that heavenly voice coming from?
Shadow & Knux: AAH!
Author: What? (looks onstage) Ah, so she's the one who has the voice of an angel. Knuckles, who is that?
Knux: Why, that's Rouge.
Author: Wow. I didn't know she could sing so well.
Knux: I'm glad, because she'll rip your lungs out if you tell her otherwise.
Shadow: I'm just nodding.
(Rouge hops down and walks over to the three by the couch)
Rouge: Well, how do you like it?
Author: It was wonderful.
Shadow: (nods)
Author: (sees Sarco) Ah, and now for my breakfast.
Shadow: You get him to bring it to you? You lazy bum.
Sarco: Here you go. By the way, did any of you know where that awful noise was coming from? I was about to fly through the wall when it finally stopped.
Everyone: 0o
Rouge: >
Author: Uh, I think now's a good time to start chap 3. Knux, could you control Rouge please.
Knux: (at the door) Nope. You're on your own. See ya!
It was quiet. So quiet you could hear the steel of the security vaults moaning at the pain of time rusting them. The only sounds were the guard robots walking and/or hovering back and forth. Not much was going on at the newly rebuilt top-security Prison Island. It was relocated for security purposes after the ARK incident. They didn't want any more 'visitors'. There were few robots patrolling the halls since GUN put in new security measures. As well as reinforced doors that lock into place in case of an emergency, they've also added more laser bars and force field barriers to stop anybody in their tracks. The usual 'gun' hunters were still being used, but at a smaller rate.
Their main purpose nowadays is to protect the more sensitive areas. Such areas like a certain group of laboratories that contain classified specimens. Other areas were used to store anything deemed 'dangerous to GUN's objectives', and were guarded fiercely. These measures would surely prevent the average thief, but not her. They could try, but she would be in and out with whatever she came for before the first alarm went off. Her receptive ears would pick up any hums from sensors or bots and easily avoid them. She'd use her graceful wings to glide over, under, or through and trap that didn't need disarming. If the need arises, she'd merely switch on her visor, target the key parts, and neutralize it.
She slid down a shaft to the point where she could see through the vent grate, and what she saw did not please her. A huge safe was centered in a large room, and that was probably because of the number of guards accommodating it. From what she counted on the floor, not even the infamous Rouge the Bat could handle them. There were about a dozen shield hunters armed with high-powered lasers. That alone she would've taken them with little difficulty, but after looking upwards and seeing the sheer number of gun beetles and bomb beetles, not to mention a few spark beetles circling around, she took a moment to rethink about the turn of events and how she got into this in the first place.
"It's your fault they're gone bat girl!" Right cross to the jaw. "No it's not! It's your responsibility!" Foot to the gut. Knuckles and Rouge stopped to take a breather, thinking of some excuse to put the blame on the other one for the disappearance of the chaos emeralds. "You shouldn't have left them alone like that!" You could tell Rouge was angry. They quarreled for another half hour before collapsing in mid-charge. Rouge leaned up against Knuckles and vice versa. It was obvious that couldn't stay mad at each other for long, Knuckles was the first to break the silence. "Fine. Let's go over what happened, alright?"
"Fine." Rouge said with a huff. "You wanted me to watch the Master Emerald along with the chaos emeralds for a while, so I did."
"But then what happened?" Knuckles cut in.
"Well, for starters, I heard you calling to me and then I saw you walking into Red Mountain. So I flew down to follow you."
"And that's when I came through the other tunnel, and saw go into Red Mountain."
"And later I heard you yell like a scared chao and I came back."
Knuckles flushed, "I do not yell like a scared chao! I saw one of Eggman's robots trying to steal the Master Emerald." Rouge gave hoot, "So you acted like a big shot and took'em head on and got whupped." Knuckles involuntary rubbed his head at that thought. Rouge smiled inward and continued, "After I came out of Red Mountain and saw a robot fly away, I ran over to the shrine and found you knocked out. I was going to check you, but I needed to see if the Master Emerald was okay." Knuckles wasn't going to believe that line of dirt. "Ha! A likely story. You thought I was dead so that you could steal the Master Emerald and add it to your collection." Rouge got defensive, "That's not true! I told you I've given up that line of work!" Knuckles temper flared. "Yea right. I'll bet that you're still working with Eggman and this whole time you were playing me a fool so that Eggman would get the master emerald. What did he offer you, the chaos emeralds?" He instantly regretted his words.
Rouge looked like he just slapped her. "H-how COULD YOU?" She turned and started to fly off, but knuckles grabbed one of her feet. She flailed and came back down, an icy glare in her eyes. Knuckles faced her. "Look, I'm sorry I said that. I know I jumped to conclusions. Just . . . don't leave. I need your help." Rouge saw the sincerity in his eyes and mellowed somewhat. She hugged him, which outright surprised him. "Well, you do act like a jerk some of the time, but I'll do it because you asked." Rouge let go of him. Knuckles was about to ask what the hug was for when a beeping came from Rouge's scope. She tapped it and words flashed across the screen. "Hey, it's from Sonic and fox-boy." Knuckles sighed, "Tell them I don't have time for anything." Rouge kept reading it, "But it says they know something about the chaos emeralds. It also says that we should meet them at these coordinates." That got Knuckles' attention. "What are we waiting for? Let's go!"
They arrived at Wild Canyon some time after dusk. Sonic was tapping his foot to his theme song while Tails worked on finding the chaos emeralds. Sarco was flying around, looking for any of Eggman's bots. Sonic saw Knuckles and Rouge land a ways away and ran over to them. "Hey there Knuckles! Glad you could make it." Knuckles shrugged, "couldn't be helped. Got to go where I'm needed." He looked over to Tails. "Heya Tails. Did you find them yet?" Tails fidgeted some more. "Hold on. I'm having trouble locating them because of the copies interfering with their signals." Knuckles almost fainted. "What do mean? There are more emeralds?" Tails nodded, "Yeah. Didn't you read it in the message we sent you?" Knuckles stared at Rouge. "Why didn't you tell me this?" She put on her best innocent expression. "I didn't see it in the message." Her sad-chao eyes bore deep into Knuckles. He sighed. A series of beeps excited Tails. "Got it! They've taken the chaos emeralds to Prison Island." This bit of news mystified the group, especially Sonic, who saw Prison Island's fiery demise. "Uh, Tails? You sure you're reading it right?"
"Yep. They rebuilt it, only it's relocated."
"So where is it?" Sonic asked. Tails pointed to the desert. "There." Knuckles thought for a moment. "Say, isn't that where Eggman's pyramid base is?" Sonic answered him, "Uh huh. Last time I ran into him, I found out he cut a deal with GUN so that they could make a new compound near him at the expense of him using some of their labs." Rouge spoke up for the first time since they got there. "But why would Eggman need to use GUN's labs?" Sonic pointed to something behind Knuckles and Rouge. "To make that." They turned around to see Sarco standing there at full height. Rouge let out a cry while Knuckles swung his fist, connecting with Sarco's smooth stomach with no effect. Knuckles just stared. How could his punch not do anything? He looked up to see rows of teeth inches from his face, ready to tear it off with a single bite.
Sonic ran in between them. "Hey, hey! We're both on the same side! Knuckles, back off. Sarco, calm down. He's not an enemy." Sarco looked at Sonic, "Okay. If you say so." Sonic was relieved. "Good. Sarco? Meet Knuckles and Rouge. Knuckles, Rouge? Meet Sarco." Sarco waved. Rouge didn't know what to say. Knuckles gave a little 'hello'. Sonic laughed. "Really guys. He's with us. I saved him from Eggman at Prison Island." Tails backed Sonic. "It's true." Rouge came over to Sarco, walking around him. "Well, mysterious and muscular. I like you already." Sarco blushed. "Uh, thanks." Knuckles head spun. Something wasn't right. He sensed the chaos emeralds, but there weren't any near here. He quickly looked for the source and saw Sarco. "Sonic, do you know that Sarco is giving off chaos energy?" Sonic scratched his head. "Yeah. That's because he um,-" Tails came in, "He has a chaos emerald for a heart."
"WHAT?" Knuckles did faint this time. Rouge knees buckled. "You're joking right?" Tails shook his head. "Nope. Check your scope." She switched it on and saw the emerald inside Sarco; only it had a different signal from the regular ones. Tails noticed her confusion, "Oh, it's giving off different energy because it evolved while it was inside Sarco." Rouge simply closed her eyes and rubbed them. This was too much. Sonic walked over to her. "Hey Rouge? We need a favor." She opened her eyes. "What kind of favor?" Tails transformed his Tornado into its battle-mech version, the cyclone. "You need to sneak into Prison Island and get all of the emeralds, including the copies. Sarco, Sonic, and I will create a diversion to distract the guards." Rouge thought about saying no, but then looked at the unconscious Knuckles. She smiled evily. "All right. I'll do it."
Rouge tapped her scope. "I could go for a good diversion right now." She said into her COM piece. 'Righty'o. One diversion, coming up,' Sonic responded. There was a small rumble and the building shook, but none of them even budged. Rouge was going to take drastic measures. She remembered the piece of metal fox-boy gave her. He said it was an EMP bomb, and it would paralyze anything mechanical that got hit with it. All right. Guess I'll have to wing it. She climbed further up and over so that she was looking thru the ceiling downwards. Rouge turned off her scope and pressed the button on the bomb. It gave a couple beeps and she dropped it. It fell a few feet before the whole room was lit up in light. Rouge shielded her eyes and used her foot to bust the grate open. The light subsided and all of the beetles plummeted like stones, each hitting either the floor or a shield hunter with a satisfying explosion. One even landed on the safe, destroying the laser beams enclosing it. She dived and screw-drilled one of the remaining shield hunters and then back flipped on top of another one. The doomed hunter flailed about, shooting in all directions, destroying two more hunters.
Rouge jumped off and drove her steel-tipped boot through it head. The robot collapsed with a dull thud. She stood up and surveyed the area: all the beetles were taken out by the EMP bomb, the shield hunters were taken out either by the falling beetles and herself, and the safe didn't need disabling, courtesy of one gracious gun beetle. Rouge walked over to the safe. When she got there, she turned her scope back on. It scanned the door and began finding the combination to unlock it. The scope suddenly stopped and a red letters flashed across the screen: ALARM ACTIVTED. Rouge cursed herself when all four walls, including the ceiling, opened up. Each one revealing two Big Foots, two Hot Shots, and a Flying Dog battle mechs. Rouge saw the Hot Shots and the Flying Dog's beam cannons charging up and the two Big Foots' missile silos open. She turned to the door; the scope was just about finished decoding the lock. Come on. Come on! Her scope and the door beeped, and then it opened. She jumped in and closed it before getting hit with an onslaught of beam cannons, missiles, and machine gun fire.
Rouge leaned against the wall, only to jump back when it shook violently. "Well. This is going to be a little hard." She muttered. As rouge looked deeper into the safe, she slowly understood why there were so many guards. There were about a hundred chaos emerald copies in little canisters on the shelves. Rouge walked around a shelf inspecting the fakes. "No wonder they wanted to keep me out of here." An ominous voice spoke to her from the center of the safe. "Actually, they're meant to keep me in." Rouge turned and looked for the origin of the voice. "Who's there?" She walked more towards the middle of the safe and saw a large tube. Around the tube were the original chaos emeralds. Rouge stared at them with much desire to just take them and forget about everything. She mover her hand to take one of them when the voice spoke again, much louder and clearer. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." Rouge looked up and gasped at what she saw. It just couldn't be. "No! Y-you're . . ."
Chaos Karaoke Bar Special #4: Bills
Shadow: " . . . not the one for meee." (Bows and walks off the stage.)
Sonic: Boo! You stink!
Shadow: You do it then, faker!
Sonic: Fine. (walks on stage and starts to sing 'Sonic Boom'.)
Shadow: Ha! That's the third time he sang that. I sure now that that's the only song he knows.
Author: Hey let me sing next.
Shadow: No. You don't get to sing because of two things: one, you didn't put me in this chapter, and two, when you sing, you make everyone fall asleep.
Sarco: At least you got to sing. Every time I tried, I set the mic on fire.
Author: It's all right Sarco. You didn't mean it. (cell phone rings) Hold on. Hello? . . . Yea Tails, what's up? . . . Huh? . . . What do you mean, 'the power gonna shut off? I paid the bill.. . . Well? Call them up! They have it on record! Bye! (turns of cell phone)
Sarco: What was that all about?
Shadow: Author's been slaking on paying the electrical bills.
Author: This one's on time! They shouldn't cut me off.
Shadow: Oh? (pulls out a long piece of paper) Then what's this?
Author: That's . . . my mortgage bill.
Shadow: Well, if that's the case, then Chaos strike me down. (the power shuts off, leaving everyone in pitch-black darkness.)
Sonic: Hey? Where'd everyone go? WAH! (falls off the stage with a loud crash)
Shadow: Meh, close enough. See ya'll! Hopefully Author will get the power back on so that he can do chapter 4.
Author: Shut up. Sarco, flame on so that I can get to the generator. (runs into a wall) Now!