Chapter 4: At HQ with Rouge
"Day 5: Have been observing target all morning. Perimeter is highly guarded. Numerous shipments going into and out of target, Guard switch happens at 7:45pm. It is 7:43pm. Will try to infiltrate during guard switch with the key card stolen on day 4."
The female voice stopped and turned off the recorder. She stored the recorder, no bigger than a tube of lipstick, in one of her numerous pockets. Silently opening another pocket of her black wardrobe, the lady extracted a small key card.
It had been so easy to get this card she reflected. Guards were always so loose with their things, especially during their coffee breaks.
Rouge the Bat looked at the key card's photograph with her excellent dark vision. "Robert Valcas" was printed next to a picture of a dopey-looking man who was starting to bald. Not exactly entering in style, she thought.
There was a single beep from her watch and she knew it was time to go.
She had selected a darkly shadowed part of the cave to roost. Directing her gleaming eyes below she could see GUN's underground Headquarters. A single, high fence ran around a tall building in the middle of the underground cavern. Watchtowers searched with strobe lights at the four corners of the fence. If you can't beat them, join 'em.
She let go of her roost and floated down below. Staying in the shadows, Rouge landed on the damp stone. She sat by the road, her black camouflage concealing herself.
A truck was coming and Rouge could hear it.
It emerged from the dark entrance loudly. As it drove by Rouge leapt onto it. She clung tightly, pressing against it to diminish her shape.
The truck passed through a searchlight and Rouge was exposed in the light. Her heart was beating rapidly. She told herself, they can't see me. They can't see me!
The light was brief, and Rouge was undetected.
After several seconds, the truck passed the guard's tower. Rouge dropped to the road and rolled out of the way of another vehicle. Quickly getting up, Rouge ran to the guard's door.
Like she had expected, no one was there. It was now or never.
Rouge inserted the key card and recalled the code Robert Valcas had used. She'd been watching for days and the 9 digit code came to her mind easily.
"9-2-8-5-1-3-6-6-0," she muttered under her breath.
A pause and Rouge's pulse quickened again. The door opened with a whoosh, and she ducked in as voices neared.
"I'm in," she told the recorder.
Inside GUN's headquarters it was sterile and cold. The walls were steel and reflected the shadows. In the dim light, Rouge could make out several flying robotic guards coming down the hall.
Like floating heads they came up on her. Their flattops nearly brushing the ceiling, each one of the robots' "eye" became a searchlight. The five guards weaved in and out of one another and so did their lights. They came up on Rouge and she nimbly danced around the lights.
That was close, she thought as they continued to the exit.
According to the map she had, thanks again to Robert Valcas, she had to go down this hall and take the 5th door on the left.
The intervals between doors were much longer then Rouge had expected. And so, after 5 minutes of just running down the first hall, Rouge came to the 5th door.
A single guard (robotic) stood in her way. Pausing in the dark to size her enemy up, Rouge also noticed 2 security cameras.
Rouge opened one of her pockets and took out a dozen "star-throws". They were her own design she remembered proudly; small, thin metal discs with 5 sharp prongs. She'd used them before and was going to use them again.
She crouched in the dark, two star-throws in her right hand, the rest in her left.
The robot's sensors barely picked up the faint whizzing noise. It turned its head to see the cameras above it fall to the floor. Quickly, it turned, guns raised. Too late. A third disc pierced its hull and a fourth took off its head.
I have two minutes, Rouge told herself.
She slipped past the metal heap and activated the door with her card.
Once inside, Rouge recalled the rest of her map. Up this hallway, take the first right, then a left, and go to the 2nd door on your right. Okay, let's do this.
She ran through the dark hall. Her feet made little sound because this time (believe it or not), she hadn't wore heels. The soft, almost slipper-like shoes she now wore were silent and that was good.
Rouge passed numerous guards, but each one remained oblivious to her presence. Creeping around the last corner, Rouge saw the final door. It wasn't guarded, but the door across the hall was.
20 seconds, her internal clock was saying, I have to get in.
She went around the corner and got a serious surprise.
The robot, a strange floating machine gun with eight missiles attracted to its circular body, was right in her face. She jumped back around the corner as a round of bullets hit the corner.
The robot came flying around the corner and Rouge rolled out of its way. Bullets flying, the machine turned around and came after her.
Rouge ran as fast as she could to the door, a line of shots following her. The robot was speeding after her and the bullets were getting closer…
She took flight. Her body twisted and eight star-throws whizzed towards the approaching robot.
Rouge was thrown down to the ground as the guard exploded. Its final round of bullets flew through the air and one knicked her right leg. The bat rolled over and grabbed her calf in pain. It was like a hot sword had sliced her leg.
She'd had worse wounds though, and Rouge got to her feet quickly.
The robot gave a final blast as its fuel supply exploded. Shards of metal filled the hall with metal on metal sounds. The robot's internal alarm went off, a series of short beeps. To finish off the noise the alarm from her first robotic encounter sounded off, an obnoxious blaring.
Great, just great…
But then Rouge saw that her door had been destroyed, and she felt better. Limping on her bad leg, she walked through the doorway.
GUN was a very dangerous military group. They had first-rate equipment and seemed to always be the first to know. How? Well, GUN had many secrets. One of those was its 'project sparkle'.
Deep within the caverns of Angel National Park, they were secretly mining precious gems of the highest quality. Selling them on the black-market, GUN was able to secure its paycheck, and these jewels were the purpose of Rouge's mission.
In the room was the largest collection of jewels Rouge had ever seen; oblivious to the alarms, she walked in.
Diamonds shone in the showcase light. Sapphires, rubies, and pearls were also shown on long shelves that lined the narrow room. Rouge's eyes gleamed with greed as she spied the center case. In a glass case was the largest diamond in the world, roughly the size of a grapefruit.
I want that! She thought. And I already have 2 alarms, why not 3, she reasoned. Out of her pockets came a small explosive. She rolled the mini-bomb at the case and it exploded in a rupture of glass and steel.
She grabbed the diamond and a couple other jewels. Stuffing them in her small back-pack, she looked for the ventilation outlet the map had shown.
Rouge flew up in the air and tore off the metal grid. Crawling inside she could hear herself breath… and the sound of approaching robots.
All robots were on high alert. So when JX-37 heard a "thump" above, it pulled out all the guns. It fired into the ceiling and saw the bat fall out. It's last programmed thoughts were- must protect files…top secret…send for back up…must…malfunction…malfun—
The room Rouge fell into was filled with an eerie glow. Computers lit the room green, while the blue of vat fluids moved in ripples across the walls. Where am I? wondered Rouge.
She lifted herself over the robot heap to the computer screens. There was movement outside the door, alarms blared, and the black pack back was bulging with her prizes.
On the monitor were series of journals. Most displayed detailed experiments, explaining the vats.
There was a certain log that caught rouge's eye, it read-
"8/10- finally, an experiment has survived! Number 094, codenamed 'Jadas'. So far, 094 has yet to take a physical form. It remains like a globe of pale light, floating in its storage vat. This has puzzled us at HQ, but despite this, its life signs are good. Jadas's brainwaves (we have yet to detect a brain though) are high, much higher then a humans. And its energy count, it is off the charts! If we could somehow harness it…
8/15- Jadas was created by the power of 'chaos'. It is a strange thing, this 'chaos'. We obtained it while we had a Chaos Emerald. Taking that energy, we have created a living lifeform with it. It will be our weapon of mass destruction, all will be under us once we can control Jadas…
8/18- Jadas has started to take physical forms! Today it became a pair of eyeglasses, identical to the ones our scientist observer was wearing. When it tired of that form (2 hours), it became a diskette like the one on a nearby desk. This skill is unexpected but could prove useful…
8/30- 2 Days ago, Jadas became an egg. This puzzled us. It had never seen an egg before. We watched as it preceded to hatch and become a baby chicken. In the time from that day to now (52 hr, 21 min, 2 sec), it has fulfilled the life of a chicken, died, and became its former, light-like form."
Digesting this information with a bad feeling, Rouge read the next part of the file.
"9/3- Jadas had escaped! The thing burst out of its vat with power we didn't know it had. Once out, it disabled the scienctist observers with a strange attack. It flashed a bright light and the scientist were knocked unconscious (they were fine later). Jadas then copied the form of one of our elite robots. It blew apart the north wall and then vanished. No trace of it, no track or smoke; only the rumble of the building. We do not know where Jadas went, but it must be recovered!'
It was at that moment that the door opened. Rouge turned to see a squad of GUN's elite robots. They were large and heavily plated, operated by humans and mounted with missile launchers. Oh boy…
The leader charged at her, breaking vats and toppling tables. Blue liquid was spattered on the walls and pieces of computer were thick in the air.
I can't win this battle, she thought. Her experienced eyes scanned the room for an escape route… there!
Rouge dove under the leading robot. Once up, she side-stepped another. She ran to the other side of the room when missiles blew up the ceiling. Dodging the falling ceiling tiles, she kept running.
She got to the wall and reached the circular opening. She reasoned that it must be a garbage-shoot, but anything is better than this. Then she looked at it and realized it was full of that blue liquid.
The robots turned and fired missiles at her. This convinced her to jump in.
The liquid was ice cold and it shocked Rouge. She barely fit in the tube, and the sack of jewels made it extremely tight. The fluid was also fast flowing. Rouge noticed this as the wall far behind her exploded.
She was flying through the tube, hitting the sides painfully; wondering if this pipe went on forever and whether she might die in it.
Suddenly the tube got smaller. Rouge was caught in on her backpack. No! Not the diamond, she thought. The pressure was incredible! Rouge could feel her body being crushed and her lungs losing what little air she had left.
I have to let it go…she thought sadly even though her life was on the line. Struggling, she wiggled out of the backpack.
Rouge was shot forward through the pipe. The sensation was too strong for her to bare. The pain was too real and her lungs too empty.
She could feel the blackness of unconsciousness growing closer and tried to fight it off. It was too strong, and I don't want to die like this…
Rouge had nearly slipped into the abyss when she was shot out of the pipe. She landed in a small lake. Its waters were still warm from the sun's light and it was so warm to Rouge.
The water took her to the shore and gently placed her limp body on the shore. With what was left of her strength, Rouge dragged herself up the bank and into the sweet grass above it.
Once in the grass she looked up at the stars, the beautiful stars.