Kagome: Hi, welcome to CH 9. Uh, not much to say…other than the beginning's the same from the last chapter.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything in this story. Short, sweet, and perfect for lazy ppl.

CH 8-The Challenge of M.E.-Rouge version.

"So…"A confused Sonic asked. "Rouge is staying here?"

"Of course!" Knuckles replied. "You can be so stupid sometimes!"

"You're not one to talk, knucklehead…" Rouge added.

"Where did you come from!" Knuckles snapped back, which was replied by a shrug from the bat.

Chris sighed. By now, everyone was used to the Knuckles-Rouge fight that happened every few minutes. Looking at Sonic, Shadow's expression seemed to say 'I'm not breaking them up this time!'. Able to understand that, Sonic sighed. Why do I have to?

"Hey you two, let's-" Sonic tried, but once again, no one cared.

"So, how'd M.E. break this time?" Rouge asked.

"W-what are you talking about?" Knuckles tried to cover up, but as everyone knew, his acting SUCKED…"It was never destroyed! Not at all!"

"I got reading from at least fifty Emerald pieces in different directions…all with the same energy of the Master Emerald…" She explained. "I bet you that even without any hunting skills I could still kick your butt and get more pieces than you!"

"We'll just see, batgirl!" He argued. "Whoever gathers the most pieces…"

"Got it!" Rouge flew off.

"No fair! Get back here batgirl!" And with that, Knuckles flew off after her.

"They'll be back in a few hours…" Shadow commented. "By the way, Sonic…"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for breaking them up…"

THE CASINO:

Rouge struggled to get out of the lion's paw's way in time. "Ugh…finally!" She said. "Now I have two pieces." Rouge looked in the direction of a door to see Knuckles. After all, a bright red echidna hardly blended in…Rouge smirked to herself. She loved rubbing things in his face.

"Hey, Knucklehead." Rouge greeted, letting him see the Emerald pieces. "Looking for these?"

Knuckles let out a low growl, followed by things so quiet Rouge didn't hear em…

However, the bat knew he was doing them still, and was very pleased with it.

SECURITY HALL:

Huh…Rouge thought. I thought this place blew up. Ah well, if there are pieces of M.E. here…

Rouge quickly found the Emerald, but on her way out, the bat was stopped by a whole troop of G.U.N. robots. Dodging all of the beams, lasers, and other thingies…Rouge was easily able to defeat a couple of robots.

Dodging another set of attacks, Rouge accidentally backed up to far, causing herself to tip over and hit a switch. Rouge was really unsure of what the switch did…until she defeated the second group of G.U.N. robots.

The third group-called by the switch-gave no warning. Because of that, one managed to get a great shot at Rouge, who barely missed a fatal blow. Instead, she found a good section of her right wing get chopped off. Unwilling to let it effect her, the bat continued fighting until she defeated the robots. She knew that the fourth group was on it's way, and even Rouge knew when to give up, so she decided to flee and find a way back to Station Square; but how? It was too far to swim, and she couldn't fly.

"Jet…" She thought out loud.

Rouge was able to defeat the robots guarding the only transportation to land easily, but with a lot of pain from her wing. Using her last bit of strength, she got in the jet and put in on autopilot. She didn't care where it took her, just as long as it got her away from there. After switching modes, Rouge felt herself fall to the floor, which is when everything went black…