I don't think I've plugged my new stickghost YouTube channel (I renamed the original to reflect its repurposing) on the AO3 side of this story yet, so yeah, I've got all my 2018-19 reviews posted over so far (doing one every Friday) plus a brand new one for Shenmue 2 mixed in for variety- I'm still crafting newer ones at a slower pace. I cover a variety of stuff from the NES to the PS4, but SEGA certainly is a popular theme.

Ah, plenty of delicious reviews last chapter... I hope I didn't come off as desperate, but I just felt it amusing enough to point out that as soon as I said nobody needed to review every chapter after the previous ones had received at least one per, everyone then decided to take said chapter off. Me and my big fat mouth. But I'm glad that the previous chapter was as big a hit as I hoped it would, since I was really proud of it. And as a bonus point for the value of reviews, Allen Vth did bring up a good point in that I should clearly establish what exactly Tails has and hasn't been forthcoming with... I never intended that he'd keep his GUN status secret from Sonic and Amy at least (I doubt he'd be able to anyway) though maybe he'd leave the others out of the loop, and likewise them being 'coworkers' but... well, no sense explaining what you'll be reading...

Gonna be a tough act to follow that chapter, so I guess it's time for do something completely different... This one is a little rough around the edges because I couldn't decide on a few things, like whether or not we're past Sonic Heroes, but seeing how the game's story was so thin, I'd personally only consider Team Sonic's and Dark's stories canon in an adaptation- too many other characters to juggle with such little content. I ultimately just decided to write this chapter ignoring it altogether for simplicity's sake and figure it out later.

DO I REALLY STILL NEED TO WARN ANYBODY TO READ ANGELS FIRST BEFORE I GO CASUALLY SPOIL THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT SCENE IN IT? I REALLY HOPE I'M JUST TALKING PURELY HYPOTHETICALLY HERE. SERIOUSLY, HOW ARE YOU EVEN STILL READING THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T? ANGELS IS THE AWESOME SETUP TO THIS WHOLE STORY! YOU'RE JUST SHORTCHANGING YOURSELF AND HAVE NOONE ELSE TO BLAME!


The world had gone insane. Up was down. Black was white. Tails was holding HER hand while reassuring HER, "Come on, don't be so nervous. It'll be fine."

It was an experience not unlike the one known as meeting the parents. And Rouge wouldn't exactly call herself the kind of girl you brought home to mom. Although Sonic and Amy behaved more like siblings to Tails, they were also the closest thing he had to parents, both being considerably older and Sonic at least having already served in the role of a guardian for a good chunk of his childhood. Sonic might be cool about them; after all, he certainly couldn't exactly be said to make the most responsible choices when it came to keeping his adopted younger brother out of trouble. But Amy on the other hand had already broadcast her misgivings on the bat with the checkered past. Normally, she wouldn't have cared whether they liked her or not- she'd made enemies of almost everyone she had interacted with for more than three minutes. They would just be another pair of names added to the list... but Tails would definitely care about whether or not his friends liked or hated each other. And in the worst-case scenario, they just might even have enough of a hold on him to put an end to any more socializing on their free time.

Tails had promised it would be safe. The event was a party being held in what he called 'neutral territory'. Meaning: it wasn't at Tails' house, or Amy's, or Knuckles'- if he even actually had one, so the hope was that being guests at another's place would deter anyone from making a scene. He had been trying to talk her into this conversation for a while, but nearly getting caught at his place had made him a little more persistent about it lately. He said that they'd find out sooner than later, and she couldn't say he was wrong. More importantly, she'd said she'd try, and it was really hard to go back on him now.

NOW being them walking up to the front of the house. He rang the doorbell. The door opened and a rabbit that was even shorter than Tails answered. "Hi, Mister Tails!" she greeted excitedly yet also extremely politely before turning uncertain upon noticing the bat accompanying the fox. "Oh! And... um... Miss...?" It didn't seem as if she already knew her, which was probably a good thing.

Her escort took the lead. "Hey Cream, this is Rouge. She's a new friend of mine."

"Oh, really? That's great!" the girl chirped. Judging by how she looked, acted, and sounded, Rouge figured that the rabbit was younger than him, though maybe not by a huge margin. It was hard to tell though since the fox acted a lot older than he actually was. "When did you meet?"

The answer was complicated, but he went with the simple answer. "During the previous... you know... adventure... She helped us out." Rouge simply kept quiet.

"Oh, right!" the bunny exclaimed. "Rouge! You're that bat thi-" She cut her innocently accidental accusation off. "Uh... I mean..." she began in an attempt to correct course, but simply glanced back to Tails as if for guidance.

Rouge sighed. "So you HAVE heard about me, huh? I'm guessing from Amy?"

When Cream didn't answer, Tails stepped in. "Don't worry, that's all in the past. She was really sorry for what she did and has been helping me out for a while. She's really a nice person." Rouge didn't object this time, even if the only part she'd really agree on was that she was sorry in at least one way...

The rabbit simply asked, "She is?"

"Yeah. I know we can trust her."

"Okay." That answer was apparently all it took, for the rabbit looked back to Rouge and meekly apologized, "I'm sorry about that." ...then suddenly reverted to her original cheerful demeanor. "It's nice to meet you."

"Likewise," she answered. Well, that was fast... I hope everyone else is going to be this easy...

"Come on in," Cream offered. "Almost everyone's already here. I have to go back and help mother right now."

As the fox and bat walked through the house alone once more, the latter leaned over to teasingly whisper, "She's a really nice girl. I'm not surprised that you two would be friends."

"It's not like that," he countered with a blush. Judging from the rabbit's total lack of any reaction to seeing him show up with another girl, that seemed to be the case. It was appropriate, as she seemed just as innocent as he was if not more so.

There were a surprising number of other people present in the house, most notably a certain red echidna, but a certain blue hedgehog emerged from the crowd to make a beeline straight for them. "Well, well, what a surprise seeing you here, Rouge. To what do we owe this honor?"

She was a little caught off guard by the very welcoming greeting, which was quite exaggerated but didn't sound patronizingly sarcastic. Once again her escort took point. "I invited her with me."

Sonic's almost-permanent smile widened. "Well, it's about time. How long have you two been seeing each other outside of GUN?"

They both exchanged surprised glances, with Tails also a little red from the way the wording made it sound. She was first to answer, by a question of her own. "You've known about that?"

"How?" Tails asked.

Sonic's smile might have gotten JUST a little wider. "Come on, I spend enough time at the house to notice that somebody else has been a regular guest when I'm not around. Especially when I just miss them. And I had a sneaking suspicion that it was the newest person in your life. You can't hide anything from me, little bro." She barely held back a smile of her own, doubting the hedgehog caught as much as he thought.

"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure of that..." she countered. Tails went IXNAY.

There was a beat before Knuckles approached, whereupon Sonic walked over to the fox's side, leaning on his shoulder to discreetly (or so he thought) whisper, "I knew you liked her." This got another blush from the fox, but he remained silent.

"Ah, so you DID show up," the echidna said simply by way of greeting. As far as HE was concerned, that could actually be considered friendly. She'd paid a few more visits to Angel Island since her theft, though of course only for social purposes. Ironic, considering he should have been the one who hated her the most, but for a self-described duty-driven warrior, he was surprisingly restrained when it came to being hostile. Of course, she knew from personal experience that he'd fight tooth and nail should she actually try anything, but as it was now, he'd simply tolerate her presence and try to drive her off with his unwelcoming attitude.

She had no idea how, but the guardian either seemed to know when she was coming or when she touched down on the island, because he was always waiting for her at the Master Emerald's shrine or intercepting her on the way. While the idea that the echidna seemingly expected to see her HERE was surprising, she managed to roll with into a teasing, "Were you hoping I would?"

"I only came because Tails assured me that you'd be here as well." Oh... That explains THAT...

Knuckles' stern manner indicated that it wasn't meant the way it could have sounded, but she wasn't about to let the opportunity he had just walked into go to waste. "Really? Well, I didn't know you wanted to see me that much! You could have just asked me to visit you more often!"

Knuckles twitched, looking almost as cute as when Tails did that. "Don't delude yourself! I only like you being in my sight because I can keep an eye on you!" His attempt at correcting his slip only resulted in digging a deeper hole.

"Oh, I can live with that! As long as I can keep my eyes on you, too!"

"I meant that I only left the Master Emerald because I know you're not stealing it right now!" God, he's kinda hopeless... I guess brawn really does come at the expense of brain...

The increase in his volume coupled with a concerned look from Tails led her to ease off. You're supposed to be trying to get on their GOOD sides... She put up her hands in a placating manner. "Easy now, Knucky. I'm here, so you can see for yourself that the Master Emerald is safe, as you say. Right?" He went quiet at this, but his suspicious face suggested that he was now having second thoughts about how sound that logic was.

"Let's go meet everyone else first," her escort suggested with a tug at her arm, leaving the echidna to focus on his pondering. Formal greetings of everyone else present followed. There was a very large cat appropriately named Big who was clearly a little bit on the dim side and seemed to just zone out after exchanging, "Hello,"- a part of her brain automatically ran assessments: definitely not her type. The remainders formed a trio. First was a boisterous crocodile (or was it alligator?) named Vector- not her type either. Second was a chameleon named Espio, who according to Tails trained in the ways of ninja- she dug the hobby, and he wasn't bad-looking either except she wasn't a big fan of the horn. Third was a bee named Charmy, a hyperactive kid possibly even younger than Cream- that disqualified him right off. Everyone besides Sonic and Knuckles seemed to be just casual acquaintances to Tails, since none of them even raised an eyebrow at their shared presence here.

So far, it was going smoothly... TOO smoothly, because suddenly Amy appeared, who was clearly not thrilled to see the thief in person. She was thankfully exercising much restraint at the moment, but that might not hold for long. Subtly sliding in close, she asked, "What are you doing here?"

Rouge was formulating a reply when Tails once more fielded the question. "I invited her."

The hedgehog's eyes went to the fox. "Why?"

"Amy..." he implored pleadingly, "she's a friend now."

"Is she?"

"Yeah, she is," he answered with the beginnings of agitation creeping in. It was a rare sight to see him get upset.

There was a tense silence before the bat stepped in. "Tails, I really appreciate you standing up for me, but I think maybe Amy and I need to have a little talk... One on one."

"Oh, I agree," the pink hedgehog said flatly. "Let's."

"Outside, okay?"

"Anywhere."

Tails was clearly about to say something, but Rouge wagged a finger to signal DON'T. "This is a girl talk." The two discreetly walked away from the party and out a door. The young genius knew better than to try stopping them or following. Once a satisfactory distance into the nearby wilderness Rouge started the conversation. "Okay, I think I can guess, but what exactly is your problem with me?"

"I have a few, but the one most relevant to this discussion is what's the deal with you and Tails?"

"There's not much of a deal. We work together at GUN sometimes..."

"Not THAT often," Amy interrupted. "I know you've been spending a lot more time with him than that. He frequently REEKS of your perfumes."

How good could hedgehogs smell? Was she being literal? Probably- the fox didn't always pick up the nicest of scents in his workshop. And with only three girls in his life, it wouldn't be hard to notice when he had spent time with another. Being caught there, she simply shrugged. "I sometimes hug him. He's such a nice guy."

"You ever kiss him?" The hedgehog's angry tone made clear that wasn't meant to be teasing. It would probably be unwise to flippantly answer THAT one. Plus, the truth on that question was... a little complicated.

She tried to dodge it. "What? I know you don't like me around your boyfriend, but you think now I'm going after Tails instead? Is that it?"

"The thought had occurred to me. Are you?"

"Are you asking if me and him are dating? NO," she said with a touch of indignation. "Of course not. He's still a kid. Give me SOME credit at least."

"So you're saying that there's ANOTHER reason you're hanging out with him?"

"Yeah. If you want to accuse me of trying to use him to get ahold of the Chaos Emeralds, just go ahead and do it. That IS what you think, right? You been talking to Knuckles?"

"Oh, he's told us all about your attempts to steal the Master Emerald."

"That happened ONE TIME. I haven't tried again since. I only pay him a visit every so often to try to get on better terms."

"Really?" Amy asked dubiously.

"Well, I'll admit to a selfish motivation that he's good-looking."

"Okay, I can believe THAT." Despite her words, Amy was clearly far from convinced. "But why would YOU of all people possibly be interested in hanging out with Tails?"

Not that long ago, Rouge wouldn't have had an answer to that question. "Because Tails is willing to hang out with me," she replied bitterly. "There, you happy? Can you at least believe that even I enjoy some conversation every once in a while, and he's just the only one among you who's friendly to me?"

Amy wasn't sure how to take the candid answer, though she still looked skeptical. "You're saying that you're really just friends? There's nothing else more going on between you two? You're not interested in-"

"I already told you, no," she interrupted. At least not yet... Maybe if I'm still single in a few years...

"Does Tails know that?"

She blinked, confused by the question. "What? Of course he knows. Why wouldn't he?"

"Because of the way you act around guys... You haven't been leading him on?"

"No... I..." she denied, stumbling over the half-truth. Amy was accusing her of manipulating the young fox with her wiles in the same way she had done with so many others; that was of course absolutely false. But she suddenly realized how her nature could still indeed be leading him on in another way. She had teased him... A lot... In rather suggestive ways... Technically, some of her conversations could be considered outright flirting. She had been aware of this and tried to tone it down but inevitably failed as the behavior was just too second nature to her. Girls like to flirt with guys they like... It's not MY fault he's such a likeable guy... She started to voice her thoughts as they popped into existence. "He's a really smart kid... He knows how it is... Where we stand..." Right? She was aware that the fox had a crush on her, but only a childlike and innocent one, not a serious one. But he wasn't going to be just a kid forever. What would he think then? Was she setting him up for disappointment? Again? Did you really not ever think that acting in a seductive manner with a close male friend just might give him a certain idea? "Why? Has he... said anything?"

"Not specifically, but he seems to think rather highly of you."

She was surprised that with their friendship a secret (even if questionably so) he would even dare speak of HER to his friends. "He does?"

"Yeah. He obviously trusts you despite your past behavior, but it's just kind of in his nature to be forgiving. He says that I shouldn't judge you too harshly for the way you act, that if I knew you..."

She guessed, "You'd understand?" As outcasts, the genius and thief went through many of the same experiences, to different extents, but she could only wonder now what exactly he had meant and just how much more he might have understood. She wasn't sure if she really wanted him to.

"He never actually completed the sentence either, but I'd imagine that's what he was going to say." Amy's voice seemed to soften. "It sounds like you know what he meant."

With her usual front absolutely collapsed at the moment, she did what could only be described as a nervous shuffle. "Yeah... he's a real great guy, isn't he?"

"Yes, he's an absolutely wonderful person. And a great friend. So if you ever do ANYTHING to hurt him..."

Whether or not the pink hedgehog could actually make a believable threat would remain a mystery, as her own automatic response came first. "I would NEVER hurt Tails!" Amy was taken aback by the outburst, which she now realized had come out with unexpected force... and then turned sheepish upon thinking of a mental correction: again... When she looked back up, she saw that the hedgehog no longer had any idea what to think. Not knowing where to go from here, she asked, "I assume he hasn't told you how we first met?"

"No, but I did get a feeling you crossed paths once before the Ark."

"Oh, it was long before that... when we were both kids."

"When you were a kid?" Amy simply asked, possibly thinking about the chronology of Sonic, but Rouge wasn't sure if capitalizing on that angle would come on too strong.

"Yeah, I was younger than he is now... I'd had a pretty nasty fall and gotten hurt, and he saw me and... helped..." She kept her answer simple and omitted the more personal details of the situation.

Amy started to smile. "THAT definitely sounds like what he'd do. Is that how you became friends? Because he helped you?"

Rouge smiled. "Yeah. He helped me... then asked if I wanted to be friends afterwards."

"He asked you to be his friend?" The hedgehog seemed surprised to hear that the bat hadn't been the one to make the first move.

"Yeah. I wasn't exactly the girl I am now. I guess the shy little fox has more game than he lets on."

"I never knew if Tails ever asked anyone else to be his friend." That was shocking... or depressing- maybe he had asked but nobody ever said yes. And did the only person to say yes stand him up?

"Really? What about you? Or Sonic?"

"I met Sonic first and we became friends through him. So did Cream and everyone else really. I don't think Tails met any of us without Sonic around. I don't even know how Sonic and Tails came to be. You're the only person I know that he ever asked to be friends with..." There was a long pause. "And you said yes?"

"Well, obviously. Why?" she asked back uncertainly, wondering why something so evident seemed to be the hardest part to believe. Without warning, the hedgehog hugged the bat with a fervor usually reserved for Sonic. "Whoa, what's up with you all of a sudden?"

There was a moment as they both exchanged confused looks. "Don't you know? About his past?"

"Uh... yeah, but... what about it, exactly?" It took much longer than it should have to connect the dots. "Oh... you mean... about how he was... treated by others?"

"Yeah... Very poorly. He was a complete outcast... That's why he's so introverted even now... Didn't you know that back then?"

"Well... yeah," she answered uneasily. Technically speaking, she had known ABOUT the fox with a second tail who wasn't very fondly received. But she hadn't known that the boy she met back then was in fact that very same person. She didn't want to think how she might have reacted if she had known that. Would I have been any different from anyone else? She hadn't any reason to ever think about- let alone form opinions on- the fox back then, but making friends with him certainly would not have benefitted the street kid she was back then.

"You knew, but you didn't have any problem with his extra tail? You were still willing to be friends with him?"

"I..." she hesitantly began before the realization that her answer wouldn't actually be a lie emboldened her response. "I did." With his identity hidden on their first meeting, she hadn't truly known who he was until their reunion on the GUN helicopter, where she still hadn't yet recognized him. While she admittedly originally found him a little annoying, and her unfriendly attitude at the time led to a rocky start, she never had any real animosity against him. "Because I knew that he was a good person."

There was another silence as they both just smiled at this. Then Amy turned quizzical. "But... how come he never mentioned this before..."

Her own smile turned downward. "Sadly, we didn't get to know each other very long back then... He became a hero and went on his adventures saving the world with Sonic... We just drifted apart... You know..." Once again, she left out a lot of details, but at least full-time heroics and jumping to other worlds hopefully provided an easy excuse for how their friendship just fell by the wayside. "It was only through one hell of a coincidence that we ever ended up meeting again."

"Oh," Amy answered simply. "I never knew... I guess I should have known I could trust Tails' judgement all along."

Another silence. "So then, does that mean you're actually fine with me and him being friends now?" Feeling confident, she couldn't resist joking, "You don't think I might be a bad influence on him anymore?"

"Well, I'm just very happy to see Tails making friends on his own. While I might not go so far as to say that you're NOT a possible bad influence on him, I think HE is a very good influence on YOU."

"I guess I can't argue with that."


DVD Commentary: I'm definitely gonna try to improve that ending. I've got a better idea but so far it just hasn't come together in a satisfactory way. There are also a few bits where I considered some more dialog (like Cream returning and chatting with Rouge), but I couldn't come up with enough content to justify it.

This chapter goes against my plan of deliberately choosing the POV's of characters to AVOID explicitly mentioning certain feelings to keep the whole DO THEY OR DON'T THEY? angle going but this one just wouldn't really work otherwise. Plus, it actually works in my favor to outright state that the Rouge side of this little ship tease is currently SHE DON'T. I'm not going to ignore the whole canon Knuckles chemistry...

I totally winged the whole party thing. I never thought I'd be featuring the other characters this much. It was originally just the core Sonic Team without even Knuckles but I decided the others were needed so everyone would be busy socializing so our girls could have their discreet confrontation, which was the original pitch, but I didn't know how or where it would go down. I originally thought it'd be a party at Amy's, but Tails inviting someone she didn't get along with to HER OWN PARTY strikes me as... a little rude, no? I also thought about simply having Cream and (belatedly) Amy showing up at Tails' place when Rouge was there, but aside from being too similar to the previous chapter, I have no idea why Amy and Cream would both go to his place but appear separately.

Aaaaaaaand... we vaguely touch on the age issue in case anybody's hung up on that sort of thing. Being animals, I imagine it's a somewhat abstract concept; animals do not 'age' at the same rate as humans. Most animals are essentially adults and fully grown after one to two years. Obviously, the Sonic crew are much closer to humans than normal animals, but their ages don't always exactly logically line up with their behavior if one didn't already know, since they ARE fully independent people. Rouge is apparently an expert femme fatale at the somewhat disconcerting age of 16/17/18 (but that's par for Japan I guess) though one might guess that she could be 30 from at least one of her voice actors. Sonic (especially Roger's) and Knuckles (especially Idris') or even (the modern mature) Amy could pass for 20-somethings. Tails (especially his cartoon Boom incarnation) is definitely still a 'kid' but acts more like he's nearing the mid-teens. Moral: don't think about it in human terms. This did bring me to an interesting idea where Rouge likes to act older for both her benefit and also somewhat for pride since she survived alone at a young age but behaves 'more her age' around Tails... I haven't really done too much with it though since I thought of it pretty late in concept, but maybe I can do more with it in the future...

As for the chronology with Sonic Heroes... While I thought about this to be after MY 'adaptation' of Heroes, the wrinkle presented is of course Shadow's presence (or lack thereof- Omega's too for that matter) in GUN. However, upon reflection, he wasn't yet an agent in his solo game; he joined GUN at some point between Shadow and 06 (can't recall if another game established it first) so I don't need to juggle his effect on the social circle yet (I mean, we've barely even acknowledged Rouge and Knuckles yet... though I at least figured she'd been dropping in on him as well given his distance from the main team.) What would he (and Omega) be doing in this timeframe? I have no idea... angsting in lone wolf fashion somewhere secluded? Maybe fodder for a future chapter... I'm not even sure how I'd write Shadow.

Sidenote: I considered a Heroes chapter like #3 did Adventure 2, but I didn't think it would work too well, and Tails comforting Rouge about Shadow's ambiguous survival (which I thought was a great idea- too bad the Shadow game decided to actually answer the question) is too similar to 3's as well. Honestly, given how thin the story was in that game, I'd only adapt certain parts of it anyway. Big and the Chaotix would logically simply be omitted to avoid over bloating the stories of the games, but I'll still consider them 'canon characters' in a broad strokes Sonic X adaptation sense since we already know them well... and well, this ISN'T exactly the Stickghostverse anyway.

I do feel that Tails would have tried bringing Rouge into the circle earlier- in fact, I was actually wondering how Sonic and Rouge never crossed paths at his place considering they're tight as brothers... But I have a thought that Rouge actually scopes it out to see when Sonic isn't around as another subversion of her public comfortably social persona. Although I still wondered if Tails would have at least let Sonic in on the secret first...