Twelve o'clock and Sonic arrived at the secret base to steal back the master emerald. To his surprise, the metal doors swished open as he approached. Unknown to him, Rouge was inside the control centre, monitoring his progress on the security cameras. Sonic raced into the building, clutching the map in front of him. No traps so far…perhaps this Rouge character wasn't so shady after all. His journey following the map was uneventful and soon the emerald room lay straight ahead. To think he'd told Tails it'd take him three whole minutes! He could grab the emerald, deliver it back to Knuckles and be back to the Mystic Ruins before his time was up.
He nearly collided with the robot. Eleanor flew at him from a side passage as he approached the emerald room. He shouted in surprise. Tails and Amy had insisted he take the light green chaos emerald, since Eleanor's blue one apparently enabled her to detect the presence of others. Tails was convinced that she'd go for the master emerald again and it looked like he was right. Sonic fumbled desperately at the pack on his back and drew out his chaos emerald. This had better work fast. He thrust it out towards the charging robot.
In the control centre, Rogue's attention was captivated by the master emerald, displayed multiple times on each of the video monitors. For several moments she did not notice the second signal on the radar as she gazed at the beautiful gem. She noticed how small it seemed, lying behind the protective screen in the vast empty room. Normally the room was crisscrossed with warning red laser beams though one couldn't enter without triggering silent alarms hidden in the doorframe anyway. Rouge glared down at her watch. Five minutes left Hurry up, Sonic! If the security here remained inactive for five minutes more, the backup monitor would alert central headquarters and Rouge couldn't deactivate this safeguard without arousing their suspicion.
The beeping radar caught her attention. Now there were two dots dancing randomly around its circumference. She knew what that meant. Rouge punched the screen in frustration and ceased her gun.
Eleanor writhed and struggled, caught in a light beam which sapped her mobility. Sonic had learned that only a direct hit from the emerald would stop her completely and only for a few moments before she pulled free. She bore several dents owing to Sonic's successful spin dash attacks, while he had only sustained a few minor cuts and bruises. He spun towards her again, leapt - and missed. She'd pulled free from the emerald beam seconds before his attack hit. She disappeared down a corridor. Even without checking the map, Sonic knew she was headed towards the master emerald.
Rouge had entered the emerald room. She planed to cease the gem and bring it back to Sonic to ensure that the robot did not escape his attacks and reach it first. She lifted the glass and ceased the beautiful treasure. Her eyes lit up as she held it. Gorgeous. But why so small? On the Floating Island it'd been so massive that they'd had to hoist it away with a helicopter, now it was small enough to hold in one paw. Rouge thought back to the space colony Ark, where Knuckles had ceased the last of the emerald shards from her and restored them to the gem while she watched. It'd been smaller then too, so that it fitted into the echidna's backpack.
Perhaps being away from its sacred Island drained the emerald making it shrink in size. Thinking of this, she found herself stroking the gem as if to soothe it. She couldn't keep it now, no matter how tempted she'd been. Despite her other faults, Rouge was not cruel and she could not keep it imprisoned here, watching it slowly diminish with every passing hour.
Suddenly, she jumped at the sound of an alarm. It came from her wristwatch. She'd set it to go off thirty seconds before her timed delay ran out and the security systems reactivated. Shoot! She'd have to override the security doors manually now and reach Sonic fast, before troops arrived from headquarters and caught her red handed stealing the emerald. She leapt for the door, spread her wings and soared out in search of Sonic.
Sonic had caught up with Eleanor again in a large circular room when the alarms began. Instantly, all doors closed and sealed themselves, trapping him inside with the robot. He raised the emerald to defend himself, but she had suddenly lost interest in fighting him. She raced to the opposite door, beating and scraping against it with her metal claws. Sonic winced, attempting to protect his ears from the clamour of metal scratching metal, wailing alarms and a succession of loud thumps, which drew ever nearer to the door in front of Eleanor. Holding one ear with a paw, he scowled up at the door beside him, trying to figure out a way to open it.
Across the room, the door opened abruptly and Eleanor sprang. Rouge gasped and fired her weapon thrice at the robot before it ceased her. They crashed to the floor sending Rouge's weapon skidding out of reach. Green light flashed and the robot paused, motionless. Sonic saw the master emerald clutched in Rouge's paw as she rose to her feet and reached for her gun.
"It won't hold her for long-WATCH OUT!" Sonic yelled to her over the shrieking alarms. Eleanor struggled furiously against the beam, while Sonic prepared and launched a spin dash attack. When he struck, the light winked out and both hedgehog and robot slammed against the far wall.
"We don't have time for this!" Rouge cried to Sonic. "There are twenty more doors I'll have to open manually now and security personnel will be here any minute to arrest us!"
Sonic leapt clear of the robot and turned his emerald on her again. "What!" he shouted over his shoulder at Rouge. He hadn't heard half of what she'd told him, since the alarms had drowned out the sound of her voice. Rouge sighed at him.
"We have to get out, now!" she screamed in his ear.
"Right," he returned, flattening his afflicted ear. He glanced back and forth between Eleanor, his emerald and Rogue. The robot was stretching out her claws, attempting to reach the master emerald in the bat's paws.
"I only ever did this once before! Your ready!" Sonic told Rouge as he clutched her paw.
"Huh!"
"Chaos Control!" Sonic cried, raising the light green emerald aloft. In an instant, the beam holding Eleanor merged with a bright green flash which surrounded and swallowed the trio.
Deep within the Mystic Ruins zone, the sky erupted with a flash and a pop and three figures were spat into existence above a deep wide lake. Eleanor, far less disorientated by her sudden jaunt than the Mobians, fired her engines for flight at once. Sonic and Rouge opened their eyes when the light winked out above and plummeted shrieking into the murky water. When a freezing torrent of murky water erupted upwards after them, Eleanor fled in terror.
Moments later, Sonic and Rouge surfaced, be sodden and chocking.
"That was horrible!" Rouge gasped. "Don't ever do that again!"
Sonic nodded. "Okay," he agreed. "I got us away though!"
"Thanks." Rouge exclaimed sarcastically. "Where did Eleanor get to?"
Sonic glanced around, and seeing no sign of the robot in the lake, he glanced upwards.
"There," he said, pointing to her retreating form in the sky. "I guess she doesn't like getting dunked!"
"Neither do I," Rouge growled. She irritably pushed aside a lily pad and swimming briskly, she made for the bank. Still grasped in one paw was the shimmering master emerald. Sonic shoved his own emerald back into his backpack and followed after her.