Recursion Error

Episode 51- Rubrum


G.U.N. soldiers were trained to be professionals. To have their minds honed to a razor's edge so they could fit themselves into the mindset of being the ideal soldier. Personnel whose minds were utmost focused on duty before all else, and, while on-duty, had a mindset to reflect this.

"Man, what are you talking about? It's blue."

Most of them at any rate.

"You're tellin' me turquoise is blue?" The pilot in the left seat of the shuttle turned his head to his co-pilot sitting on the right side of the cockpit. "You're trippin', man. Trippin'. It's green."

Sighing at the clouds rushing past the shuttle's windshield in front of him, the right pilot turned his head to meet the eyes of the left. "And you're colorblind. Turquoise is blue, not green, you're an idiot, case closed."

"Nah-nah-nah-nah, no, no way, it's green. I'm tellin' ya it's green," Left said. "Dude- I- you- I've seen it with my own eyes! It's green!"

"You know if you would have made an argument for it being somewhere in the middle I would have agreed with you, but since you're dead-set on dying on a hill just to be wrong, I'm gonna stand my ground." Right blew past his lips and turned his chair back forwards to the controls. "Just look at the name. Turquoise. It fits right in with blue, like cyan and azure. It's a blue word."

"You're bringing names into this now!?" Left exclaimed. "Man, you can't- I took an art class, you can't pull this nonsense on me. I know what colors are. I got a certificate that says I do on my file."

"How many things can you describe that are turquoise?" Right asked. "No, seriously, how many things? I bet the only time you ever even saw the word turquoise was when you were looking at color pallets while figuring out what to color your 'projects' in your art class."

Sighing, Left rubbed at the bridge of his nose. "Hey, uh, don't-don't Rouge got turquoise eyes?"

"Oh, don't even try asking, man," Right said with a shake of his head. "She's got rank on us. I don't wanna get written up because we were more focused on arguing about colors than flying the ship."

"Come on, dude, it's not like it's storming or anything. Sky's as clear as it could be. Besides, she's a girl, right? Girls are into this kinda thing I think. It'll take like five seconds-"

"Yeah, she's a girl that can kick you into next week with both her eyes closed and three limbs tied behind her back. Trust me man, you don't wanna bug her with this."

"I mean I was kind of getting a real chill vibe from her, but whatevs, dude."

"Good." With a huff, Right crossed his arms. "... Her eyes are more an aqua anyways."

"Oh don't even START WITH AQUA-!"

A hand burst through the shuttle's windshield and grabbed Left by the face. He didn't have the time to scream out in surprise before the fingers gripping his head squeezed down and crushed his cranium into a pulpy mess.

Right, who was on the other side of the cockpit, did scream at the sight of his co-pilot having his head mashed into mush only for him to then fall lifelessly out of his chair. He then looked towards the window, which was where he saw him. A man completely covered in red clothes crouching outside on the windshield of the shuttle, with his left hand holding onto an outside part of the shuttle while his right hand, covered in a now-bloodied black glove, was sticking in through the hole in the windshield he'd made.

The remaining pilot, so stunned by the gratuitous act of violence, could do nothing but watch in shock as the hand sticking through the windshield lowered itself to the control console. The hand wrapped its fingers around the control stick to the shuttle, and then pulled it up hard enough that the stick was halfway towards being pulled out of the console completely, to the point that it was sparking electricity and some wires were exposed at the bottom of the stick.

Following this, the ship lurched. Its front had turned completely down as the shuttle began to nosedive straight towards the ground. The remaining pilot had finally managed to shake himself from his stupor and moved to act. He'd known that the windshield to the shuttle was reinforced and resistant to damage, despite the fact the stranger in red had seemingly managed to punch through it, and he didn't have confidence in his ability to accurately aim at a target as small and nimble as an arm. So he'd unsheathed his combat knife and ran right towards the arm while stabbing down towards it.

His efforts proved to be for naught, as right before the knife stabbed down into it the red-sleeved arm snapped upwards and snatched the pilot's wrist. It effortlessly twisted the wrist completely around, creating a sickening snap! sound and causing the pilot to scream out in pain. The knife was dropped as a result, though it was quickly caught by Rubrum's hand only for it to then throw the knife at the soldier's head. The blade had sunk right into his forehead, causing his eyes to roll to the back of his head and his body to fall lifelessly to the ground.

"Aaaaand we're goin' down..." Rubrum thought to himself. He pulled his arm out from the hole in the windshield, and then looked over his shoulder. He made a small grimace behind the shadow of his hood from the fast-approaching ground. "Yeah, that's gonna hurt."

He looked ahead just in time to see the cabin door leading to the cockpit open. He saw a very shocked-looking white bat in the open doorway, staring at both him and the bodies of the soldiers with wide eyes and a gaping mouth.

Rubrum had just enough time to wave at her before the nosediving shuttle slammed him and itself right into the ground.


Turned out getting slammed right into the ground full-speed by a plummeting shuttle hurt worse than Rubrum thought it would.

It'd happened so quickly it'd been a blur, even to him. There'd been a lot of loud sounds. A burst of pain across his everything. A lot of bouncing and being crushed. All ending with him being under something that'd fallen off the shuttle after it crashed into the ground.

With a groan, he kicked off the heap of metal that had been lying on top of him. He slowly sat upwards, sighing out as the throbbing pain along his body dulled and at the feeling of bones and muscles regenerating and righting themselves into their proper positions. He looked up with a sigh, his neck cracking from the movement, and then began to climb to his feet as he observed his surroundings.

The shuttle had crashed down in an otherwise unpopulated part of a forest while heading towards New Mobotropolis. Conveniently enough, it had crash-landed in a wide, natural and clear path between the trees that went in a straight line. Other than that, there was nothing around. Just trees and the hunk of metal he was staring at.

In of itself, the crash had been devastating. It hadn't exploded, but considering it'd crashed full-speed right into the ground it was all but decommissioned. He saw, with some surprise, another survivor that had been tossed all the way to the direct opposite side of the crash site.

That survivor, the white-furred bat Mobian, had made a small groan as she blearily blinked her eyes open. She slowly sat up as she shook her head, seemingly no worse for wear, and then looked up at the wreckage of the G.U.N. shuttle. It was barely recognizable at this point, being half-buried in the ground, misshapen due the metal buckling so severely from the impact, and was burning. Rubrum saw her gasp out when she saw the single surviving G.U.N. soldier of the group pinned under the burning shuttle wreckage sitting on his legs, who was trying desperately to pull himself out. She'd only turned her teal eyes towards Rubrum himself when he began limping towards the soldier.

"Son of a bitch, that hurt..." Rubrum had groaned. He began winding his right shoulder up, and slowly his limping gait started to transition into a normal walk as his body rapidly healed. He made it halfway to the struggling G.U.N. soldier, and then stopped when he crossed the mangled body of one of the pilots he'd killed earlier. "Surprised you even made it," he scoffed out as he crouched down to the pilot's body. "The bat not so much, Mobians are freakishly tough like that, but you? The hell do they make these ships out of?"

Rouge watched as the man's black-gloved hands rummaged around the dead G.U.N. pilot's belt, only for him to then pull the man's sidearm away. He stood back up while admiring the pistol, and then tilted his hooded head in the direction of the pinned Overlander soldier. Realizing what he intended to do, Rouge shot upwards into a ready crouch, but to her dismay before she could even flap her wings Rubrum had aimed the pistol at the soldier and fired off three rounds into his head, ending him.

"You'll be in my heart for as long as I remember your face, generic soldierman," Rubrum said. He looked down at the pistol in his hand, and then made a small hum. "I'm keeping you for later," he decided as he stuffed the pistol into the interior of his hooded robe. Satisfied, he then turned around to face Rouge.

The white bat was crouched down about ten meters away from him. She'd visible tensed up when his hood-shadowed face turned towards her, and her breathing had increased by a small amount. She managed to maintain a semi-calm composure, though, her eyes narrowing in his direction as her dark bat wings experimentally flapped. Rubrum had been the one to get the first word in.

"Well, if it isn't Rouge the flying rat," he greeted, though the insult had gotten no visible rise out of the agent. "Snooping around, as per usual. You wouldn't happen to be on your way to warn all your pals about the little trap Eggman set, would you?"

"What would you know about that?" There had been a couple of times Rouge's eyes flicked to the bodies of the dead G.U.N. personnel, though they had been momentary glances. She still seemed completely serious, if not a bit nervous at the sight of the red-dressed man in front of her.

"Oh... about everything," Rubrum admitted.

"And just who are you?" she demanded.

Rubrum shrugged. "My name ain't all that important, Rouge."

The steely gaze she continued to give him didn't falter in the slightest. Her eyes tipped down just enough to eye the red clothes covering his entire body, as well as the black boots and gloves covering his hands and feet, and then she looked back to his face completely concealed by the shadow of his red hood. "Alright. What are you?" she tried.

"Equally unimportant," Rubrum said. "You sure you should be fishing for information at a time like this, Rouge? You got a guy that just straight-murdered three of your boys right in front of ya. Now ain't the time to be pulling this spy shit."

Rouge's focused expression was finally broken by a small frown. She slowly began to rise up into a standing position, and then dusted herself off a bit as she continued giving Rubrum a wary stare. "That mean to imply you're gonna try doing me in, too?"

He shook his head, causing surprise to bloom on her face. "Nah. Can't," he said, causing the bat's surprise to turn to confusion. "That said, uh... I don't suppose if I just asked you to chill out here for, I don't know, like a day or something while the big throwdown between Eggman and the Freedom Fighters goes down you'd listen?"

Her answer was immediate. "Not a chance."

"Nobody ever makes it easy for me," Rubrum sighed out. "Look. Rouge. I'll make you an offer. If you just sit here for a day I'll leave you alone. Hell, you don't even have to do that. I just don't want you telling anybody about the trap until the fight's over with." He slowly rose his right arm up and pointed at her. "If you don't do that... I'll tear your wings off."


Dangerous.

It was the one thing both her experience and her instincts were screaming at her as she looked at the person standing in front of her. Not just because he'd somehow crashed a G.U.N. shuttle with his bare hands, or how he'd mercilessly killed three soldiers without batting an eye. Relevant factors of course- ones that made Rouge just that much more wary of him.

His demeanor. That was what was setting her off the most above all else. That casual manner of speech and the way his body language was so relaxed, a stark contrast to how wound up she felt just looking at him. The words he spoke had so much confidence behind them, like what he said was a undeniable fact. No cockiness- genuine confidence. Rouge was experienced enough to tell the difference between ignorant cockiness and confidence, and this man in red in front of her was practically oozing with self-assured confidence. Which was why she'd retracted her wings just the barest amount when he'd threatened to tear her wings off while also raising her hands into a guarding stance. She legitimately believed him when he said that he was going to tear them off with his bare hands. Believed enough that she'd felt her spine shiver.

"... Just kidding." Her guard wasn't lowered in the slightest, though Rouge did cock her head in confusion when the red-dressed man she didn't know as Rubrum made a small chuckle, and then opened the hand he was using to point at her as he lowered it back to his side. "You're a bit too important to cripple. But I can still break you as much as I want as long as you'll make a full recovery afterwards."

"Just what is he playing at here...?" He didn't seem like somebody who was more chatty than they wanted to be. That'd been another bad sign on top of everything else; there was calculated cleverness under the casual speech that Rouge could see. "Is he with Eggman? That's the only reason he'd want me to stay quiet on spilling about the trap to the others, but... there's something off with him. Way off. This isn't some random goon he hired. None of the signs are there. He's... I don't know what he is..."

That was in terms of what his agenda was, or even literally what he was. With his entire body being covered with clothes she couldn't determine his exact species; for all she knew he might not have been a Mobian. An android? Wouldn't be the first time Eggman used something along those lines. All she could determine was it was a male from how the voice sounded and the general shape of the body.

She shook her head. Speculation wasn't going to get her anywhere, and there was no way she was going to listen to the directions of whoever this was. She somewhat doubted he'd just let her fly away, too. He still had that gun from the deceased soldier and she didn't want to risk testing how good his aim was. So it seemed she'd have to fight. Even if there was something in the back of her mind telling her that was an exceedingly bad idea.

The man in red seemed to pick up on her decision from the way his shoulders slumped slightly. "Alright, have it your way." Strangely, he turned towards the wreckage of the shuttle. "Let's at least make it a bit interesting."

Rouge felt nothing but confusion as he walked right in front of the wreckage. She grew even more confused, and worried, when his fist punched right through the damaged steel hull of the ship. His hand seemed to rifle around in the innards of the wreck for a bit, and with a satisfied hum he pulled something out.

"The... the ship's power couplings...?" Rouge thought to herself. In Rubrum's hand was indeed that component of the ship. Two metal cylinders connected together by a short cable. The man spun them around so he held the couplings by one of the cylinders, and then his hooded head looked towards Rouge.

"Hahhhh...!" He shifted into a kung-fu stance startling fast. A... horrendous stance, from what Rouge observed. His footing was completely off and his posture was so wrong she wanted to sigh at the sight of it. It looked less like a professional martial arts stance and more something emulated off a cheap comic. "Ata!" He began to spin the power couplings around himself, like he was using them as a pair of nunchucks. "Wa-wa-wa-wa! Ata! Ha! Hiyah!"

By now Rouge's guard was beginning to drop as she looked at the sight in front of her. There he was, a man who'd killed three men without even flinching, who Rouge had pegged as somebody being incredibly dangerous... shouting out goofy kung-fu noises as he spun the power couplings all around him. It wasn't even that good; she could see from the way he was spinning them he had no actual experience or skill using that type of weapon. They looked like badly-emulated movements, like his stance was. There was no denying he had speed, though. Intense speed and reflexes that compensated for his lack of skill based on the way he was spinning the makeshift nunchucks around so successfully if not skillfully. He was strong, too, if the fact he'd punched through a steel bulkhead with his bare fist said anything.

Just what was he?

"Waaaa...!" He spun the nunchucks around one more time, ending with one end of the power coupling being held under his armpit while the other end was held by his hand. He was still in that ridiculous kung-fu stance. "I've always wanted to try out nunchucks." With his free hand, he gestured towards the bat. "Come on, Rouge! Don't leave me hanging here!"

"Fighting me with a weapon you've never held before?" Her wings flared out to her side. "Big mistake!"

She took off the ground like a bullet, flying right towards the red man's position. She'd spun in the air once to gain momentum, lifting her leg up as she approached and then delivering an expertly-crafted kick right down onto him.

The kick hit nothing but air.

"Y'sure?" Rouge landed on the ground, surprised at the empty space. She then spun to her right at the voice to see her opponent standing next to her, looking down at his nunchucks in contemplation. "I don't know, I mean... rule of cool still applies, right?"

Scowling, the bat Mobian kicked out towards the man again. To her surprise she actually saw him dodge the kick this time. A dodge that seemed so lazily performed but with such terrifying speed she couldn't help but be off-put by it. She tried again and again to kick him, but every single kick whiffed right past the man's hooded head as he just dipped out of the way each and every time.

"Oh, yeah, guess I should be doing some stuff, too. Wa-ta!"

He'd struck out with the power couplings too fast for Rouge to dodge. She felt it connect with her side, and immediately pain shot up her body from the hard impact. She grunted from the pain and tried hopping back to create distance between them. To her disbelief, Rubrum had countered by jumping up in the air after her, and began spinning. Spinning in a way that the end of the nunchuck was held out to the side, like some demented windmill spitting out kung-fu noises.

Rouge was struck again, this time in the face. More pain lanced through her senses, causing her to growl slightly as her wings beat off the ground. She was able to maneuver quickly to the man's backside, though before she could even strike he'd made another exaggerated kung-fu noise and swung the power coupling behind himself. The end of it struck her calf, hard enough that she'd felt the vibrations of the hit right in her bones. The pain was enough to cause her to shout and hop back.

But he wouldn't let her gain distance. He'd dashed right in front of her at frightening speeds, continuing to swing the nunchucks at her. Every single hit was punctuated by one of those ridiculous noises he'd make along with pain exploding on one part of her body. Anger and frustration began to rapidly build up in Rouge the longer this went on. Indignation from being made a fool of from just how casual this person was acting over something so serious. For doing so much damage to her of all people and acting like it was nothing.

Nobody made a fool of her like this.

For as fast as he was with the nunchucks, he had absolutely no skill using them. Just raw speed and reflexes. The hits were delivered with the same types of swings, over and over. Even the amount of spins and flourishes he'd do with the power couplings between hits were limited. He may have been swinging them too fast for Rouge to keep up with, but there was a pattern to the hits. A pattern she was learning quickly past all the pain the hits were giving her.

That was why, eventually, she finally managed to land a hit. She'd struck her leg out in a quick jab, right in the middle of the power coupling being swung towards her. Its momentum was shifted as a result of the kick, causing it to spin around and bash the hooded man right in the face. He sputtered and stepped back from the hit, having left his center wide open. She'd lifted her leg up once more and delivered a straight kick to the male's chest.

The hit was sufficient enough that he was sent skidding back away from Rouge. She hadn't even waited for him to stop, having leapt right into the air after him. It was only when his feet skidded to a stop did Rubrum look up just in time to see Rouge spinning towards him with her leg extended. He grasped both power couplings and held it up with the intent to use the cable to guard him. This did little, as the resulting axe kick from Rouge had completely split the cable.

Rubrum stumbled back a bit as a result, looking down at his split apart nunchucks in what Rouge thought was surprise. She would have allowed herself a small smirk as she leapt back if it wasn't for the fact he began laughing.

"Ha ha! Alright!" He nonchalantly tossed the severed power couplings away and gestured to Rouge again. "You wanna play? Let's play!"

Where there had once been the beginnings of a smirk was now a frustrated frown that was directed at her opponent. He simply just stood there, arms swaying to his side in a carefree manner as he tapped his foot to an unheard tune, like he was waiting for Rouge to hurry up and make a move. It was with a fair bit of anger behind it did she leap up into the air again.

Angry as she may have been, it hadn't managed to cloud her mind or her skill as she wound up another kick midair. The man she was aiming for just continued to stand there, his hooded head looking up at her as she came closer. Even when she fell within striking distance he did not move, and by that point she thought a hit was assured.

But, it wasn't. He'd waited until her muscles began moving her leg to dodge. It made it so her kick came within millimeters of hitting him, but it was still a miss. The tree he'd been standing in front of, however, was not so fortunate. Her kick had been made with enough skill that there was a thick seem running straight through the entire trunk of the tree the man had been standing in front of. A large creaking sound was heard, with Rubrum having turned his head towards the tree that began falling backwards, while Rouge kept her eyes locked on him.

"Ah... that's the Rouge I know," he said as the tree fell fully down to the ground. He ducked his head to avoid getting struck by another kick. "You and that monster kick of yours."

"We've never met," Rouge said as she defensively hopped back away from him.

"Meh... I guess that's technically accurate," he agreed with a shrug.

"Well maybe we oughta get to know each other," Rouge suggested, doing her best to ignore the pain of the previous hits as she offered him a teasing smile. "I'll tell you something about myself if you tell me who you are."

"Ah, but we're already in the middle of doing that." Rubrum held his fists up and began lightly hopping on his feet. "And I gotta say, I'm real disappointed with what I'm finding here."

Rouge frowned. Even in that loose fighting stance he looked too casual for comfort. She decided a straightforward approach was appropriate, and dove right in.

Kick upon kick was unleashed on him. Not a single one of her attacks managed to hit him, each and every one just slightly grazing past him. The most she'd ever been able to do was ruffle the clothes he wore, with him ducking, bobbing, weaving, and overall just dodging every attack she sent him. The same couldn't be said for his performance.

Oh, she'd managed to dodge some of his hits. Some, and just barely. A vast majority of them were landing on her, though, and they hit harder than the makeshift nunchucks had. She wasn't failing to dodge or block those hits for lack of trying, either.

It was strange, though. That style he was using it. In-between taking blows from him Rouge managed to eye just what he was doing, and she couldn't help but be confused by his movements. He was repeating moves. The same ones, over and over, and in the same pattern. That pattern was one of the only reasons she was able to dodge to begin with, because otherwise the hits were coming too quick for her to keep up with.

A left hook, a right uppercut, followed by Rubrum spinning around and performing roundhouse kicks with both legs.

A left hook, a right uppercut, a delay, and then Rubrum using his left leg to perform a flurry of straight kicks, ending with him dodging backwards and then rushing forwards with a straight right punch, all in a single motion.

That was it. Rubrum kept defaulting to those two exact same combos, never deviating from them. He'd mix it up by ending combos prematurely sometimes, feints like that, but otherwise not only would he solely use those attacks, he'd use them in that exact same sequence. It was absolutely baffling to Rouge why he would employ such a style, and even more why he was refusing to expand and use other moves. If it wasn't for his seemingly monstrous strength and speed any competent fighter would have been able to counter and beat him a million times over by now.

She had a sneaking suspicion why he was limiting himself so much, though. The same reason he kept making small chuckles and laughs whenever he dodged her attacks, or on the rare occasion she dodged his. The same reason he was using such basic combos. The same reason he managed to punch through solid steel but a hit on her wasn't going straight through her. For some reason, he was holding back on her. She couldn't tell if he was a legitimately inexperienced hand-to-hand fighter or not, but he was definitely limiting his power. And an idea began to form in her head because of this observation.

Her wings flapped and sent her flying backwards, creating distance between them. Rouge's feet skid across the ground slightly, while Rubrum had tilted his head to the side as he looked in her direction.

"You... you really know how to flatter a girl," she sarcastically remarked through feigned, heavy breaths, "holding back like that."

"Well, what can I say?" Rubrum asked, not even bothering to deny it. "I'm having a blast hitting you over and over. Besides. You're not worth putting in actual effort."

"That's it, keep giving me what I want..." If it weren't for the need to keep on her act and the pain preventing it, she would have smiled. "I'm gonna make you eat those words!"

Her wings beat down roughly, and the bat was sent rocketing forwards. Her leg was cocked back, her face twisted in an enraged expression in what was seemingly a hot-blooded, reckless charge forwards. Rubrum had actually slumped his shoulders in disappointment a bit at the sight, and cocked back his own left fist in preparation.

"You always start with a left hook with those combos of yours." She knew that it would come at a speed too fast for Rouge to counter. She knew exactly what was coming, though. What kind of punch, its length, its trajectory. And she'd be a poor fighter if she didn't know how to counter a specific type of punch. So when she entered Rubrum's attack range, she'd struck.

The hooded man had struck out straight towards her, having assumed she'd charged him in blind rage. And indeed the look on her face reflected this assumption. That was, right until the movement to punch was made, at which point the expression on her face shifted from an enraged one to a confident smirk. She'd flapped her wings and twisted her body in preparation before the left hook was even initiated, so that when when the left hook was initiated it'd whiffed right past her. Rouge then wrapped her own arms around the limb in the process of it missing her, and with the assistance of her wings used the vast strength behind the punch's momentum to spin the arm's owner around.

Rouge had intended to flip him onto his back, though his own strength and reflexes proved too great for that. She'd still managed to spin him around and leave him open, though, and struck when the opportunity presented itself. She'd kicked him in the side of the head. A kick even stronger than the one that'd cut down the previous tree in a single strike. A kick with all her strength and skill behind it.

Rubrum's head had snapped to the side under the force of the kick. A kick that'd been so intense Rouge had felt his skull completely shatter under her heel. The man himself gasped out in surprise at actually having been kicked, and more than likely from his skull caving into his brain. More than that, his hood had been jostled just the barest amount. Rouge had quickly retreated from him after delivering the kick, settling down on the ground in front of him with in a low stance as she gazed up to his face.

The hood hadn't been moved back all that much. Not enough that the shadows covering his face receded. She still couldn't tell what he was. What she could see were straight locks on long, red hair poking out from the underside of the hood, only being revealed due to her kick.

"..." Rubrum had frozen, seemingly catching on to the fact some of his hair had been exposed from the kick. Slowly, his hand reached up to grasp at the hood. "Well then..." he hissed out, sounding quite upset as he moved the hood back to conceal his whole face. "That kick would have killed me if I couldn't regenerate, Rouge."

"Kinda fighting for my life here," she commented between heavy breaths. "What? Didn't think I'd pull my punches like you?"

"Nah, not at all. You're the kind of person who'd let a whole world burn for a fucking gem. That's primarily the reason why I really don't like you, Rouge."

The white bat made an unbelieving scoff at that. "You really think I'm that bad?"

"Doesn't really matter what I think, does it?" With a light groan, Rubrum flexed his neck back and forth and began to stretch his arms behind his back. "I guess it's time to stop messing around. I've had enough fun with you."

She couldn't help but give him a teasing smirk in response. Her entire body ached, and the longer this went on the less and less confidence she had in winning something like this. But the one hit alone had her feeling good enough to be a bit cheeky. "Aw, really? All it took was a single hit from little old me for you to finally get the lead out?"

"I'll do you a favor and spare your teeth. Wouldn't wanna permanently mess up that pretty little manipulative smile of yours."

And at that point, everything fell apart for Rouge.

The G.U.N. agent apparently didn't have an accurate scale of just how much Rubrum had been holding back against her, because it was after that sentence was said that her entire body began to explode in pain. Blow after blow was struck on her at various points along her body, delivered at such speeds she couldn't even move to get out of the way. It felt like she was being hit in multiple spots at the same time from how fast Rubrum was attacking her with punches and kicks. So fast she could barely see him move, and much, much harder than any other hit she'd ever taken in her entire life.

Bones began creaking uncomfortably from the heavy blows. She felt and even heard some fracture. Her entire body was so inflamed in pain from the beating she was becoming numb to it.

It had ended with Rubrum began kicking her. Kick after kick mixed into spins that was knocking Rouge's entire body back, with Rubrum keeping pace with her with his spins and kicks. He'd become so ferocious in his kicks that he began kicking upwards, with Rouge's body being sent up into the air while the momentum from his own kicks carried Rubrum up with her. The final kick was when he began spinning in front of her while they were midair. His entire body spun at a speed he was nothing but a blurry red wheel to Rouge's darkening vision, before he finally stopped with his leg extended right above her. All that momentum from the spinning was delivered into a single, vicious heel kick that sent Rouge rocketing towards the ground with a pained scream.

Before she'd even hit the ground Rubrum had somehow appeared on the ground, and hit her with such a powerful straight punch that Rouge's trajectory shifted. All she could manage was a weak grunt as she was sent sailing back into the wreckage of the shuttle. Her body had impacted the flat wall of the crashed shuttle so hard the metal dented from the impact. And from that point, she lost the energy and will to keep moving.


"Holding back is such a pain... 'least I got it kick the greedy bitch's face in." With a quiet sigh, Rubrum ran a hand over the hood covering his head. "That would have been disastrous of she saw my face. Ah, well... managed to save it. No point in worrying."

He looked ahead, towards the wreckage that he'd sent Rouge to. She was lying flat on her back against a slab that was angled just enough that was was able to lie there without sliding off. Even from here he could see just how sorry of a state her body was in. Battered, beaten, bruises all along her face and body, blood leaking from the corner of her mouth. The heavy breathing and rapidly-blinking eyes suggested she was still conscious. Barely hanging in there, but awake. Good enough as far as Rubrum was concerned.

"You got skill. I'll give you that much." Rubrum had approached the metal slab she was lying on, and then turned around so his back was leaning on the metal slab right next to her. "More skill than almost anybody else. But skill's all you got. You're no Shadow. No Sonic. No Knuckles. You don't have any real power to put you up there with the best. You're nothing but a filthy thief with more talent and skill than you have any right to possess."

He turned his head down to Rouge. The bat had turned her own head towards him just to look at him. Past all the labored breathing and heavy bruising along her face, she still managed to give him a defiant glare.

"But most importantly... you don't have a concept as to what true strength is. You had its meaning slapped right in your face and you still don't have a damn clue." Rubrum leaned down so he was closer to Rouge, his tone lowering some. "Somebody as selfish as you will never understand. You made that abundantly clear to me with what you tried to do."

"I don't... know what you're talking about..." Rouge grunted out.

"Mm. You wouldn't." Rubrum rose himself back up, still leaning next to the beaten bat's body. "Must feel terrible. Knowing your pal Shadow is about to walk into a trap. A miniature fortress rigged with so many traps and robots he'd be preoccupied there all day along with Sorun. All for a Chaos Emerald that wasn't even there to begin with...

"At least that's what would have happened if I didn't go and put the real Emerald there."

Rouge's heavy breathing was interrupted with a small gasp. Her eyes widened a bit, and her battered features grew more confused. "W-what...?"

"Yeah. I was already there. Disabled all the traps and killed all the robots. Whole place is empty. I put the last Chaos Emerald at the back of the place for Sorun. It's just sitting there and waiting for him to take it."

It was an explanation delivered with no hesitation and so lightly it carried the same weight as somebody talking about the weather. It's what Rubrum said to her, though. And it seemed to cause no end to the confusion Rouge suffered if the lost look she had said anything.

"That... that makes no sense," she mumbled out. "Why? Why would you do that?"

"Oh, 'cause the Chaos Emeralds are slowly killing Sorun." Rouge's breathing stalled completely when she heard that. Her eyes widened as far as they could go, and she began to shake slightly. "Yeah, I wanna say he'll have around... twenty-ish minutes once he absorbs the one I put down for him? Somewhere around there. After that? He's done for. Dead. Finished."

"That's a lie," she ground out. Her voice was pained and full of denial. The livid glare she maintained towards him remained defiant. "He's not the kind of person to hide s-something like th-that... he would have told someone...!"

"Shows what you know. Some spy you are." Rubrum's head turned towards the wreckage. "I don't think the ship's busted up enough so badly that the emergency beacon won't be working. Even if it isn't G.U.N.'ll send search parties after a while. You'll be fine once they get you to an infirmary. But that'll be way after Sorun dies. There's nothing you can do to warn anybody in time in the state you're in."

"Why?" Rubrum turned back to Rouge when he heard her ask that question. He couldn't tell if she was starting to believe him or if she was just getting drowsy from losing consciousness. "Why... why are you d-doing this? Who a-are you?"

"The answer to your question is a fascinating one. Unfortunately, it's not for your oversized-ass ears to hear." He flicked one of Rouge's ears, causing it to flick and for her to grunt out. He then pushed off the metal slab, walking backwards while still facing Rouge, who did her best to keep her eyes on him. Based on the fading look she had she seemed to finally be losing consciousness. "Let's just say it's all in accordance with His will and leave it at that, huh? Now go ahead and get your beauty sleep. You really need it right now with how your face looks."

If Rouge had any further words for him, she wasn't able to get them out. Her wounds had finally become too much for her, and she'd blacked out right there on the slab. Scoffing at the sight, Rubrum turned right around. He quickly removed his black gloves to reveal the pale, human hands underneath them, and then tossed the pair of gloves on a nearby pile of burning rubble.

"Alright, that's that step finished. It'll get my existence out to G.U.N., and eventually it'll wind towards him. Not enough to completely blow my cover. Just enough to get him thinking and make things smoother later on." Once the hands were free from the gloves, Rubrum dug into the pockets of his cloak and brought out the piece of notebook paper for him to see. "Let's just do a last-minute double check here..."

- Genocide the Xorda so the Black Arms can invade Mobius (X)

- Go to Dark Mobius and kill Dark Enerjak (Silver won't be around to take care of it) (X)

- Go to the fake Chaos Emerald signal trap set up during Eggman's desperate assault, disable the trap, and place the real Chaos Emerald there for Sorun (X)

- Body Rouge (X)

- Save Eggman's life ()

- Kill Sorun ()

"Alright, deep-sixed the Enerjak from that beyond fucked up zone, Black Arms should take a long while to get here, after the whole split mess if I timed it right, yep, yeah, mhm, looking good..." There was no helping the sigh that left Rubrum as he looked at the two next objectives. "This hurts my soul just to read. Ugh... why the hell did He have to make things so damn complicated?"