I truly didn't want to get out of bed, given what happened with the bat girl the previous night. I just wanted to sleep my life away. I was so confused; first she acted like she wanted me, then she acted like she hated me, then she just up and left. Are all women that complicated?
I was trying to ignore the fact that it was noon, but I got a knock on the door. I tried to zone it out, but the door wouldn't stop knocking. I finally sprung out of bed, marched over to the door, and threw it open.
"WHAT?" I yelled, thinking it was Sonic.
It wasn't him though, it was the person that caused the worse night in my life. It was the bat girl.
"Oh, it's you. Did you come back to bash the remainder of my self-esteem?"
I slowly shut the door, and walked over to my closet. I heard the bat girl open the door again.
"I came to apologize, for real this time"
"What are you gonna do now, tie me up and gag me? If last night was a false apology, I don't want to see what you do when you mean it" I said as I threw a tee-shirt on.
"That's what I wanted to apologize for…"
I turned around to face her.
"What do you mean?"
"I misjudged you, I thought you were like every other guy on the streets. I judged you before I even got to know you!"
Her beautiful iceberg eyes were starting to tear up. I walked up to her and put my hand on her shoulder.
"It's okay, you don't have to get upset. I don't know your life story, but I'm going to guess you've never been around a half-decent guy"
"…Rouge" she muttered.
"What?"
"My name is Rouge. You said last night you like to know the names of women before you-"
"Whoa, I need way more than a name before I do that kind of stuff! I need to know and trust the girl completely before I-"
"I know, echidna boy, I know! I just figured you should know my name before you asked me out on a date!"
"How do you know I would have asked you out?" I asked sarcastically. She didn't seem to get my joke.
"Oh… okay then. I'm sorry I took up your time" she started to walk out the door.
"Wait!"
She turned around and looked at me, her iceberg eyes peering into my soul.
"Would you like to go out sometime?"
Her frown quickly turned into a smile that an Archangel couldn't compete with.
"Do you mean it? You're not just saying that to be nice?"
"You kidding? I would be the luckiest man in the world to get a date with a first-rate beauty like yourself!"
Her cheeks turned as red as me when I said that, it made me want to pass out she was so beautiful.
She got out a piece of paper and a purple pen from her purse and wrote something down.
"This is my address, see you at Eight o'clock?"
"You bet, See you tonight!"
"See you then, echidna boy"
"Knuckles" I blurted out like a total dork.
"Cute name for a cute guy; see ya around, Knuckles.."
She turned away and started walking down the hall; the way she said my name made me weak in the knees.
Just as Rouge was just out of sight, Sonic came in the room.
"Way to go, Knuckles!" he said, giving me a congratulatory punch in the arm.
"What do you mean?" I said, innocently.
"What I mean is that gorgeous bat lady I saw leaving your room!"
I could feel my face getting red hot.
"So, do you know where you're taking her?"
"How did you know I asked her out?"
"I can tell by the look on your face, you never smile this much!"
Was it really that obvious?
"I don't know where I'm taking her, probably just to the Station Square Diner"
"Don't you dare, Knuckles!"
"What's wrong with that place? We go there all the time!"
"But this is a special occasion with a special lady, take her someplace that will impress her! Let her know you're 'Mr. exciting'!"
"Where would you suggest I take her?"
"Well, Amy and I went to the Emerald Coast Steakhouse way back in high school. You should take her there, it's a five-star restaurant right on the beach. She'll love it, Amy sure did!"
"That sounds good, thank you for the suggestion"
"No prob, Knux! Oh, yeah… I forgot to tell you the reason I came down here…"
"What is it?"
"Shadow is upstairs in Tails' lab, he says it's important"
Perfect, just what I need to ruin a good day!

"What took you guys so long, Sonic?"
"Sorry, Tails. Knuckles and I needed to talk"
"Whatever you say… Shadow has something to tell you guys, go ahead, Shadow"
"Well, all of you know that Eggman has one of the Chaos Emeralds"
"That you helped steal!" I interrupted.
"…Right. Anyway, I finally found out what he's using it for!"
He took a long pause; Tails, Sonic and I were waiting in suspense.
"For God's sake, spit it out already!" I yelled impatiently.
"I'm sorry! It's just that you probably won't believe me, and I don't want to be caught giving you information! Eggman seems suspicious of me lately"
"You are not going to switch back to being a bad guy! Don't forget, I saved your life… I'm not losing one of my friends to the R. Gang! Spit it out, Shadow!" Sonic yelled.
"Fine, he's using the emerald to create a huge city-wide blackout! He's going to put the city's power up for ransom. If the mayor doesn't give the city over to Eggman, he's not going to return the power back to the city."
"Haha, that's ridiculous! Does Eggman really believe that legend about the Chaos Emeralds? He's a man of science, I didn't know he believed in fairy tales!"
"Tails, I've seen what the Chaos Emerald can do. The yellow emerald can indeed control electricity, including machinery! Science can't explain everything, the Chaos Emeralds do seem to hold some hidden power, or at least this one does."
"Whatever, I still don't believe you! I would have to see it to believe it. When is this blackout supposed to happen?"
"That's the good news, the mission has been temporarily halted. The machine that will be used to cause the blackout needs six large diamonds to work."
"If the yellow Chaos Emerald is as powerful as you say, why would it need diamonds to work?"
"The emerald is too powerful, the diamonds will help filter out some of its extraordinary power. If we used it right now without the diamonds; the machine would explode, taking the whole city with it! Eggman needs a city to control. If there was no city, there would be no point!"
"Right… so what do you want us to do?" I asked, feeling a headache coming on.
"Nothing yet. I don't know Eggman's next plan of action, it would be foolish to come up with a counter attack before knowing what you're up against! I just wanted to give you a heads up, I'll be back when I learn more!"
With that, he was gone.
"Eh, whatever; we have more important business to attend to right now!"
"What's that, Sonic?" Tails asked, with a confused look on his face.
"Knuckles has a date tonight!"
"No freaking way!"
"Yes freaking way, with the bat girl from Casinopolis!"
"Wait a minute! She's tied to the Robotnic Gang somehow! You can't go on dates with the enemy!"
"She's not one of them! She's a broken woman that needs to be mended into the masterpiece she's meant to be! I can feel it, she's not part of the gang!"
"Well, she knows them somehow. On your date, casually bring it up"
"Tails, how do I 'casually' bring something like that up? 'Hey, isn't it a beautiful night out? You know, I heard the wine was awesome here. Oh, by the way; are you in cahoots with the most dangerous gang in the nation?' Yes, that would be a good conversation to have!"
"Knuckles, I know you like this girl! but you have to find out what she knows, or who she really is!"
"Alright, I'll see if I can subtly ask the question while we eat desert or something!"
Sonic impatiently looked at his watch.
"Tails, Knuckles and I have to go. Lord knows it's been a looong time since he had a date, and I'm gonna make sure he knows what he's doing!"
"Hey!" I yelled (although, he was right).
"Okay, go on ahead. Just don't forget about asking her!"
"He won't, now let's go!"
Sonic grabbed my arm and practically drug me out of the room.

Sonic forced me to go to the Station Square mall to get some new clothes. I hate new clothes, they felt weird and they had a strange smell to them.
"Sonic, I don't know why you dragged me here, I have plenty of clothes at my place!"
"Yeah, but you need to find yourself a nice tux! Amy said a man is judged by what he wears on a first date. Do you want her to think you're some kind of rube?"
"…nooo" I said, sounding a bit too childish.
"Didn't think so! Hey, how about this one?"
He pulled a tuxedo out of the rack. It was pink with a bunch of frilly ruffles.
"You're kidding me, right? Do I look gay to you?"
"Well, I didn't want to say anything, but…"
I playfully punched him in the arm (a little harder than I meant to).
"Ow! It was a joke, damn!"
He put the effeminate tux back on the rack, and picked out another one.
"How about this one? In all seriousness, this one fits you perfectly.
He was right, it did look just right. It was plain, but it had some class to it. It looked like a tux 007 would wear. I went into the changing room and tried it on. Sweet, It fit perfectly too! I went out and showed Sonic.
"Whooo, hey there; sexy!" Sonic teased.
A group of people near the dressing room were staring at him, but he didn't care. He always jokes around without thinking of the outcome.
"So, do you really like it? Do you think Rouge will like it?"
"she'll be all over you! Now change back into your street clothes and buy that sucker, so we can move on to gifts!"
"What do you mean?"
"Amy says that on a first date, you should impress the girl with some kind of gift"
"Oh, okay"
I guess I was more out of the game than I thought. I went back into the dressing room and put my other clothes back on. Then, we went to buy the tux. I guess I forgot to check the price tag, cuz DAMN it was more expensive than I thought!
"The total comes to $1,365.86"
"Are you kidding me? That's absolutely ridiculous! Does the thing also massage your feet? Dang!"
"Don't worry, Knuckles! I have Tails' emergency credit card! He gave it to me after I saved him from that shootout 2 years ago. He owes me, we'll just use it!"
"I don't think you're allowed to use another person's credit card without the owner present!"
"I don't care, money is money!" said the apparently greedy cashier.
Sonic handed the card to the cashier and paid for the tux. I felt kind of bad that we used Tails' well-earned money. He does make three times more than Sonic and me combined though, so maybe I shouldn't have felt TOO bad about it.
We left the shop and headed for another store in the mall. It was a jewelry store; apparently Sonic wanted Tails and me to go bankrupt.
"What's wrong with chocolates or something? Do I have to get her jewelry, it's too pricy!"
"Amy says the way to a woman's heart is through their lust for shiny, expensive things"
"Well, Amy is insane!" I yelled.
I looked around the store for something in my budget. I almost gave up, when something caught my eye. It was a jewel-encrusted golden rose. It glimmered in the light; it had small rubies, sapphires and emeralds all around it. Rouge would love it! But it looked like it would cost a fortune.
The purple hedgehog jeweler apparently saw me staring at it, because she walked right up to me.
"You have an eye for beauty, would you like to purchase it?"
"What? No, I couldn't… The price tag says it's $45,000! I definitely don't have that kind of money…"
"You've found yourself a special girl, haven't you?" she asked in a soft voice.
"How did you know that?"
"Woman's intuition. Your face is glowing like a firefly on an August night. I'll tell you what, I'll give you a special discount for the golden rose. Only $250 if you act right now!"
"What? How can you deduct the price that much?"
"I made that rose myself. Hand crafted, with jewels imported from all over the world. A true masterpiece, I spent 3 years of my life working on it"
"Then why do you want to sell it so cheap?" I asked, very confused.
"I would rather it be given with true love than just sit there collecting dust. My boss told me to sell it for $45,000, but now I'm changing my mind"
"Okay, I'll do it!"
"Wonderful! There is one catch though"
"Great, what's that?"
"Let me do some finishing touches, you can come back tomorrow and pay for it then"
"Well, my date is tonight…"
"If she cares about you half as much as I can tell you care about her, there will be many dates to come! Now, shoo! I have a lot of work to do!"
I grabbed Sonic and we left the store.

We rushed back home, I only had an hour to get ready! I hopped in the shower, combed my hair, put on cologne, and got my tux on as fast as humanly possible. I was out of breath!
I ran down the stairs and headed to my car. I fished the piece of paper with Rouge's address from my pocket. She was on the other side of town, and I only had 5 minutes to get there!
I broke at least half a dozen traffic laws, but I made it on time. I got out of the car, and headed to the front door.
She didn't have a terrible house, but it wasn't what I expected. I t was a one-story stone house with a good-sized yard. I expected a girl as classy as Rouge to live in a million dollar mansion, but I guess I shouldn't judge.
I knocked on the door, and waited a few seconds. I could hear her footsteps getting closer to the door. I was getting butterflies in my stomach.
She opened the door, and my heart skipped a beat. She looked so beautiful they should make up a new word just for her. She was wearing a long purple dress (that actually fit her), and she wasn't wearing much makeup. Honestly, she looked much more beautiful the way she really was.
"Care to accompany me, my lady?"
I held out my hand for her and she grabbed It; that sent shivers down my spine.
"Why, yes I would! Where are we going, fine sir?"
"It's a surprise!"
"I really do love surprises; the good ones at any rate"
I opened the passenger door for her, and she got in. I closed it and got on the driver's side. I started up the car, and away we went.